


An Island to Discover

by Surajtare



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alien Abduction, Bittersweet Ending, Clones, Colonization, Gen, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-03-27 22:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 28,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13890756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Surajtare/pseuds/Surajtare
Summary: A gun is being shoved into his face. There's the smell of the motel room, of her shampooed hair, of grease and metal. He closes his eyes and opens them again, but the gun is still there. He is still half asleep, and the thought drifts slowly into his mind: it's her hand holding that gun.An AU where the colonization did happen in 2012, and seasons 10 and 11 (as well as the events leading up to them) did not. On Invasion day, Scully betrays Mulder and hands him over to the enemy. He is taken to a spaceship where he meets someone familiar.





	1. Mulder

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in 2011, trying to imagine what the invasion would look like. Now seems to be a good time to publish it. Spoilers for everything up to IWTB. I wrote this to Coldplay's album "A Rush of Blood to the Head", with each chapter corresponding to a song from that album (which in a way influenced the plot). This chapter was written to "Politic". The title of the work is taken from a line from Coldplay's song "Warning Sign", of the same album: "You were an island and I passed you by, when you were and island to discover".
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing and gain nothing, please don't sue me.

A gun is being shoved into his face. There's the smell of the motel room, of her shampooed hair, of grease and metal. He closes his eyes and opens them again, but the gun is still there. He is still half asleep, and the thought drifts slowly into his mind: it's her hand holding that gun.

"Scully?" He asks uncertainly.

She does not respond. Her eyes are cold, empty: blue glacier pools reflecting a frozen sky. Her lips are pursed together, as they get when she is annoyed. Her small hand is holding the gun steadily, unflinching, straight in his face.

"Scully, what's going on?" He asks.

"Shut up." She says briskly. Her voice sounds different to him, and yet somehow familiar. And then it dawns on him: this is her bad-cop voice, her FBI voice. He hadn't heard that voice in ages.

"Seriously, what's going on?" He repeats. "Would you move that gun already?"

"Shut up." She says again. She absently sends her left hand, the one not holding the gun, and scratches the back of her neck. 

And he suddenly realizes what went wrong.

"It's them making you do this, Scully." He says, willing himself to sound calm. "They are giving you orders through that thing in your neck. It's not you doing this, Scully. It's not you, it's them!"

She shrugs. A new sound floats into his ears now, the muffled swishing of helicopter blades. She does not turn her head to look. Her eyes are locked into his all the time, but he searches in vain for her inside them. The helicopter lands nearby, and now there are voices. Human voices, loud and menacing, getting nearer by the second.

"Scully, please." He says. "Please, stop this. This isn't you doing this. This isn't you, it's them. Don't let them do this to you, Scully. Don't let them win."

The door bursts open and several men run inside. They are big, bulky men, wearing uniform. He doesn't even need the uniform to know who they are. Or rather, what they are. He tries for a quick break but she pulls the safety and shakes her head slightly. He freezes; even now, when she is a total stranger, he can read her perfectly.

"Scully, please." He begs again, as they grab him and drag him towards the door. "Please, Scully, don't let them do this. Don't let them do this! Scully!"

The super soldiers drag him out the door and into the parking lot, and she follows them slowly, dreamily. Her gun-wielding arm is limp at her side, and the other scratches the back of her neck again.

"Scully!" He shouts as they howl him onto the waiting helicopter.

"Scully!" As the door is closing.

"Scully, please!" As they leave the ground.

She does not look at him. She does not follow the helicopter with her eyes. She just stands there for a moment, staring straight ahead. Suddenly she yawns, and drops the gun. The last thing he sees of her is her back turned to him as she returns to the motel room, barefoot, still wearing her satin pajamas.

The date is December 21, 2012. It is ten at night, New-Mexico time.

The invasion has begun.

*

The helicopter flies him until they are out of New-Mexico, out of the geological area dangerous to super soldiers and alien spacecraft. He knows this because he is being moved to one. A real, albeit small, flying saucer. He looks at the opening, eyes wide with excitement, when he feels a sharp pain at the back of his head. One of the Super Soldiers hit him, and he sinks into unconsciousness.

*

_Four years earlier…_

About a month after that horrific Father Joe business Scully came home one day with a spark in her eyes. Mulder gave her a questioning smile, surprised but pleased to see her look happy for a change.

"I booked us two tickets to Hawaii." She said. "Do you think the darkness will follow us there?"

"If it does, it better bring sun lotion." Was his oh-so-witty answer, but she smiled. 

"That's what I wanted to hear." She said. "Besides, I'm so tired of this damn cold. Driving home on ice is not my idea of a good time." 

And off they went. They sat in an airplane, with her clutching the seats for dear life and him joking about the food, like old times, and walked on the beach and ate pineapple and drank strangely colored cocktails, totally unlike old times. 

One day, after they had been on the island for a few days, he decided to surprise her with an exotic picnic. So he bought food and put it in a basket and rented a row boat. They set out to a small island, about a mile offshore, alone on a boat surrounded by miles of nothingness. 

A dark spot in the horizon turned out to be a helicopter. He looked at it and his eyes darkened. She followed his gaze, stared at it for a while, and then shrugged and said "It's just a helicopter." 

"It's never just a helicopter." He answered. 

Her face fell. He said nothing more, though he knew he was right. 

The helicopter was right above them now, hovering, going higher. 

She lifted her face up, smiled and waved at it. 

"What are you doing?" He asked even while he was imitating her. 

"They came all this way to see us." She said calmly. "The least we can do is say hello." 

*

After they returned from Hawaii they set out to save the world. This was again her idea. 

"I know we said we would put our faith in God, but it isn't enough. It's depressing to sit around doing nothing. I can't take it anymore, I need to do something." 

"So you want us to save the world?" Mulder asked. "Regardless of God?" 

God helps those who help themselves." She answered. 

*

The first person they contacted was Marita Covarrubias. This was Scully's idea. She wanted to get her hands on the Russian vaccine and give it to as many people as she can. 

"I'm a doctor now, Mulder. Don't you see? It's perfect! The more people we vaccinate the less will catch the alien virus. This will put sticks through the wheels of the invasion, wouldn't it?" 

"I'm just wondering how we're going to get people to agree to be vaccinated in the first place." He said. 

Marita was all for it. In fact, she has been waiting to hear from them. 

"Four years to go and there is yet so much to do." She said. "Where the hell have you two been?!" 

"Well, now we are here, and we want to vaccinate as many people as we can." Said Scully, "The question is, how do we get them to agree?" 

Marita smiled conspiratorially. 

"Actually, I've got something up my sleeve." She said. "Just wait and see." 

*

The outbreak of the swine flu in 2009 came in perfect timing. A mass manufacture of the Russian vaccine was already in progress, bottles were piling up, but there was still no excuse to give them to people. 

When Mulder first heard about the swine flu, he laughed. 

"Nice one." He told Marita. "How did you manage that one?" 

"A simple jumbling of a human flu virus with pig DNA." Marita said. "Any kid could do it. The guys in the lab gave me the idea, after they managed to combine our vaccine with a simple flu shot. But then we needed the flu. The beauty of it is that it's no more lethal than an average flu – it just has better publicity." 

"Who's helping with that, by the way?" Mulder asked. 

"Morris Fletcher." Marita answered. "Publicity _is_ his field, you know." 

*

Mulder worked at scaring random people into getting their flu-shots. He would start conversations in supermarkets and bus stations, spreading terror about the swine-flu. Scully, the ever more practical, joined a non-profit organization that was sending doctors to third world countries. She spent three months in Africa and two more in the far-east, giving out flu shots from dawn to dusk. They got some more people to help them, but not anyone from the FBI. Getting Skinner, Dogget and Reyes involved was just too dangerous, for the project and for them. But Scully checked the name lists every day, and did not relax until they were all vaccinated. 

After several years they managed to vaccinate sixty percent of the world's population. Mulder said "It's not enough" and Scully answered "Well maybe it's time to turn to God again." 

"Maybe." He answered. "But do you mind turning to him from a safer location?" 

Two days prior to due-date they flew to New-Mexico. The land around Roswell contained a rare form of magnetite, which arrived to earth years ago on a meteor. The super soldiers were sensitive to it and the alien ships even more so. Mulder told Scully that even though both of them were vaccinated years ago, it still did not mean that other things could not kill them. 

She wasn't listening. She was staring out the car window at the desert flowing around them, absently scratching the back of her neck. 

"Scully?" He asked, and she turned towards him. 

"I'm sorry." She said. "I got lost for a moment. What did you say?" 

He attributed it to the long hours of not sleeping, and to nervousness about the coming due-date. Now he realizes that he should have suspected the chip from the start. 

*

_2012_

The inside of the ship is a blur. He is hardly awake and it's dark. The air smells funny, but familiar. It isn't his first time on an alien spaceship, after all. But this time he is not on a cot or an alien-dentist's-chair-from-hell – in fact, he is lying on the floor. His shoulder is aching, probably because someone threw him against the wall and he landed in a strange position. He would like to fix it but he can't move his limbs. He can't help being scared. 

Suddenly there is a new sound: the swish of an airlock of some sort. A rectangle of dim yellow light opens in front of him, and in it stands a slim figure. 

"Hello." She says quietly. 

He does not answer, but stares at her. She is a girl, a seemingly normal human girl, about the age of seventeen. He does not see her face but her hair, a dark strawberry blond, reflects the dim light outside. 

"Are you awake?" She asks. "You're looking at me, so I guess you are." 

At last he finds his voice. "Water." He manages to croak. "I need water." 

She nods once and leaves. She returns after a minute, carrying a perfectly normal glass, and hands it to him. He gives her a desperate look and she nods, apparently aware of his paralyzed state. She lifts up his head and, supporting it, slowly pours water into his throat. He is embarrassed, trying not to choke. Up close she looks pretty, and familiar. She looks down at him with shy, blue eyes. 

"Where am I?" He asks when all the water has been swallowed. 

"Somewhere above Madagascar, I think." She says calmly. "Or Sudan. I'm not exactly sure." 

"Are we…on a plane?" He asks. 

She laughs so hard that there is no need to answer. 

"You look familiar." He says when she calms down. "What's your name?" 

She opens her mouth to answer when a voice calls from the hallway. 

"Emily, get away from there! I told you not to talk to the prisoners!" 

The voice is even more familiar, but cognitive dissonance prevents him from recognizing it. 

"It's alright, mom!" The girl calls. "I know him." 

"You do?" He asks, surprised. 

She seems confused. "At least…I think so. I thought I did the moment I saw you – "

"Emily!" 

" Just a minute mom! …the moment I saw you being carried here. That's why I came in to see you. My mom doesn't like me near the prisoners, she says they can't be trusted…"

"Emily, what's going on?" 

A new figure stands at the doorway. A smaller figure. 

"It's alright, mom, he's not dangerous." The girl says, but the mother shakes her head impatiently. 

"That is not for you to determine." She says. 

"Mom, he's paralyzed." Emily says impatiently, but the mother is not impressed. "Emily, get away from there. Come on!" 

As she says this she takes a step backwards, waving Emily to follow her, and is washed by the light of the hallway. 

Mulder just stares. 

Emily surrenders and gets up to join her mother in the hallway. He looks at her, a tall teenager, and remembers a three year old girl laughing at his impression of Mr. Potato-Head. But the thought is pushed to the back of his head as her mother moves to close the door and leave him alone. 

"Wait!" He calls, and for some reason she stops. Blue-green eyes are looking at him, trying to make out his face in the dark. 

"S...Scully?" he asks slowly. 

The eyes widen, and the door opens just a little. Emily looks confused. 

"Mulder?" Asks Scully, who clearly does not remember nearly shooting him tonight. Her voice is shaking, and she leaves the door open and rushes to his side. "Is it really you?" she whispers. 

"Of course it is." He snaps at her. "You pointed a gun at me less than two hours ago!" 

"That wasn't me." She says. "It was that _thing_ ".

"Of course it was you!" He calls. "And how come Emily is alive? You told me she died in your arms!" 

She looks back at Emily, who is still standing at the door, then back at him. 

"That wasn't me, Mulder." She says. "It hasn't been for eighteen years." 

"Wha-what do you mean?" 

"When I was taken, when Duane Barry took me… I never returned." She explains, not looking into his eyes. 

"What do you mean you never returned?" He asks. "Of course you returned. We worked together for years after that. We had a child together. We live together!" 

"That isn't me, Mulder." She tries to explain. "I never returned. I was replaced." 

He is about to argue, but something stops him. For a moment she breaks in two before him, and then unites. It suddenly strikes him that she looks different than he remembers. She is wearing a pair of ridiculously large jeans and a buttoned down flannel shirt that went out of style in 1996. Her hair, a dark brownish-red, is tied behind her head in a wavy ponytail. She has big bright eyes, more green than blue, the way he remembered them when she was abducted. 

"By whom?" He asks. "Replaced by whom?" 

She sighs. 

"Emily, go to your room." She says. 

"Forget it." Emily answers. "I'm not missing this!" 

She sighs again. "It doesn't matter, Mulder. It hasn't for years. I…I have to go now but I'll check on you later." 

She gets up to leave, not looking back at him. 

"Scully?" He asks, uncertainly. 

She stops at the door, her back to him. "I go by Odyssey now." She says quickly, and leaves. The door shuts behind her, and darkness fills the room. 

*

The invasion was set to start at the 21 of December, so they spent the day having fun together. There was nothing more they could do for the world anyway, and they mutely agreed that they want some good memories from this day. They hung around Roswell, ate ice-cream (even she gave up her usual Tofu-horrors), went back to the motel and made love. After that they showered together, made love again and sat down to wait for the end of the world. 

When the sun began to set and the world was still standing, she suggested that he rest for a while. 

"You didn't sleep well for days." She said. "I'll wake you up if the sky falls." 

And gently touched the back of her neck as she watched him fall asleep. 


	2. Odyssey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She closes her eyes and sleeps, or sort of sleeps. Disturbing images flash behind her eyelids, which eventually fly open. She lies in bed for a long time, thinking about the look in those familiar hazel eyes as she told him who she was. She hates to have him here. He brings back memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Odyssey POV. I wrote this to Coldplay's song "In My Place", from the album "A Rush of Blood to the Head".

Odyssey walks slowly down the hall and into her quarters. She has sent Emily to sleep (a move that brought a smirk to the teenager's face) and is now preparing for her own sleep. She does not know what time it is, and that does not really matter on a spaceship. She usually tries to keep DC time, though. Force of habit.

Her quarters are also something you would not normally find on a spaceship. The door, white and wooden, stands out starkly in the dark hallway. Behind it is a small, warm apartment: it has lots of space, wooden furniture, a soft sofa with white and green stripes, lots of plants and even stained glass windows. In fact, it is identical in every way to her old Georgetown apartment. Well, almost in every way: the stained glass windows open to spaceship walls. There is artificial lighting behind them to imitate the time of day in Washington. Right now it seems to be nighttime. Good, she is tired.

She goes to the bedroom and puts on a satin pajama suit, curls between the ever-white sheets of her bed and thinks. The truth is, she does not like this apartment. Ann gave it to her as a birthday present a few years back. Later she found out that everything was taken from her original apartment, after Dana Scully fled to join Fox Mulder in hiding. At first it made her think of the two of them, which she rarely did for a long time, but that is not why she does not like it here. She hates it for what it does to her.

It brings back some bad memories. And good memories. And memories, period. She lived in this apartment with Ethan, before she met Mulder and the rest of the world faded away. His arms were the last to hold her in this bed, and it makes her think of him. But the phone by the bed reminds her of Mulder and his late-night calls. Even now, as the numbers of the entirely useless alarm clock turn to 11:21 pm, she almost expects him to call. But he doesn't, of course. How can he, stuck in the dungeons like that.

The phone in the living room was a different story. It also reminded her of Mulder, but of the last time she ever called him. She was shouting, calling for help in desperation and fear, and was unanswered. She had thrown that phone away after two weeks of nightmares, and now her living room is less stressful.

Emily does not live in this apartment. She has her own quarters down the hall. The other bedroom belongs to Andrew, who is nowhere to be seen at the moment. Unlike most mothers of stray teenage boys, she is rarely worried about him. This is a spaceship, after all, filled with mind reading Greys. How far can he possibly get?

She closes her eyes and sleeps, or sort of sleeps. Disturbing images flash behind her eyelids, which eventually fly open. She lies in bed for a long time, thinking about the look in those familiar hazel eyes as she told him who she was. She hates to have him here. He brings back memories.

*

Duane Barry kidnapped her out of her home and howled her unceremoniously into the trunk of her own car. She used to put groceries in that trunk. Suddenly she found herself in the presence of seldom thought of objects: a jack, some ropes, car cables, a spare wheel. There was also an overnight bag she had in the trunk for emergencies. They let her keep that bag, oddly enough.

From the car she was moved to a helicopter, clutching to her bag of clothes and spare underwear, tooth brush and deodorant. They took the bag from her and shoved her onto the transparent plastic floor, through which she saw Mulder for the last time in nearly twenty years. He was there on the mountaintop, talking to Duane Barry, after missing her by seconds. She did not call for him this time but merely lay there crying, furious with herself for letting them see her weakness.

The first month was horrible, although not much recollection of it was left. She was experimented on, a human lab rat, reduced to the reaction of her organs to certain materials, certain interventions. After one month they stopped experimenting on her and offered her to join the project.

They were going to take over the Earth, they said. That is a fact she cannot change. The date had been set centuries ago, and almost everything was ready. They could use her medical and scientific expertise on the human replacement program. She can either refuse and die with the rest of humanity, or agree and save herself.

She refused.

Two months later they called her back in and revealed the result of their experiments: in a series of photos she saw Mulder and her family standing next to a hospital bed. On it was a small redheaded woman, identical to her in every way. She had been replaced.

Another month passed, in which they frequently showed her photos of her new self, living her old life: going out in the field with Mulder, having Friday night dinners with her mother, chatting away entire afternoons with her newly returned sister. The thought of it burnt her insides. She hadn't seen Melissa for two years and now this clone woman stole her away. Her sister did not notice a thing. Hell, even her mother did not notice the replacement, and isn't a mother supposed to know her child better than anyone? After this month, when they asked her again, she agreed to join their project.

*

The first time she openly rebelled was almost four years after her abduction, when she found out about Emily. By then she was already called Odyssey, partly because "Dana Katherine Scully" was already taken and partly as a joke. Ann told her, of course. She called her into her hole of an office and showed her some pictures of a small blond girl.

"Her adoptive mother was just murdered." Ann said. "I think they are planning to take the child to the farms."

Odyssey cringed.

"Why do such a thing to a three-year-old?" she asked.

"She's not a regular three year old." Ann said. "She's one of our making. Human ova, human sperm, some extra alien DNA on the side."

Odyssey looked at the girl closely.

"Could you get a clearer image?" she asked.

Ann sniggered. "Of course I can. I can get an image so clear you could see the hair in her father's nose."

"That won't be necessary, thank you." Odyssey said, and Ann laughed.

As the image of the girl's face became clearer, Odyssey's stomach cringed more and more.

"She looks familiar." She said.

"Ask me why." Ann said.

"No." Odyssey answered.

"Come on." Ann said. "For her. Ask me who her mother is."

"I know who her mother is." Odyssey said. "I may be an accomplice to the forces of evil, but I'm not stupid. She looks exactly like my sister did when she was little. Except she has blue eyes."

"She got that from you." Ann said. "Want me to find out who the father is?"

"Not right now." Odyssey said. "I need to save her before they take her to the farms."

"She's in San-Diego." Ann said in her let's-get-to-business voice. "Know anyone out there that can help?"

"My brother used to live there." Odyssey said. "He's a navy captain like my father was."

"What's his name?" Ann asked, already running images of Naval Base San-Diego.

"Bill." Odyssey said. "William Jr. Scully."

On a different screen, Ann ran addresses.

"There he is!" she declared after less than thirty seconds. "And here is his phone number. Want to call?"

"Actually, I have a better idea." Said Odyssey, who was looking at the images of Bill's house shown on the monitor. She pointed at a small redheaded figure at the edge of the screen. "Look who just came for a visit. "

*

Convincing Dana to help the child was easy. She had no idea that the call came from the original bearer of her genes, so she thought the caller was Melissa. Odyssey was surprised by this turn of events, but had to admit that she and Melissa always sounded alike on the phone. And besides, it got her the girl.

Ann made sure to send someone to replace the medicine the girl had been given with something else; at first if made her better, and then it made her seem sick. Eventually it made her seem dead. After that, it was easy. Ann just sent one of her many helpers to fetch the girl from the funeral home and fill the coffin with sand. Piece of cake.

The fact that Dana cried for weeks afterwards did not matter. It was not _her_ child in the first place, it was Odyssey's. _She_ was not even a real person.

*

Years faded one into the other after that. Odyssey was allowed to keep Emily, on condition that she would have another child for the project. So she had Andrew. She carried her pregnancy indifferently, thinking that the baby was alien and would probably be taken to the farms soon after birth. She was wrong.

Andrew turned out to be completely human, even more so than Emily. The Greys couldn't understand it at first. They had mixed their own genetic material with the ova and sperm, they said, but none of it stuck. Nobody knew why, and extensive studying gave no results. Eventually she was left alone.

"Luckily for you, you are doing a very good job." Said Captain Jakogihonichtian (Whom she called "Jack" in the privacy of her head). "Otherwise we would have killed you for insubordination."

"No you wouldn't have." She answered peacefully. "You like me. Admit it."

But he would not. The Greys admitted no human emotion, though they most definitely had them. They were crazy about Ann, for example. She could do whatever she wanted with them, and often did. If they had any rage about it, they took it out on one of her clones. That is probably why Ann had more clones than any other human in history. The aliens needed something to vent on.

*

Around 3a.m, DC time, she gives up sleep altogether. She lies in bed for a long time, awake, a frown on her face that would have been familiar to him, had he seen it. But he doesn't, of course. How can he, down in the dungeons, trapped in the paralysis field.

She sighs, gets up and (in her pajamas, bathrobe and fluffy slippers) walks down the hall to Ann's small office. When she gets there she thinks, not for the first time, that the word "office" is a huge overstatement for the tiny space, filled with so many monitors, panels and mysterious spyware that there is hardly room left for Ann.

Odyssey knocks on the door softly as she enters. "May I come in?"

Inside, instead of Ann, she finds Emily. The girl is sitting in a chair, her light hair glowing softly in the greenish-grey light of the monitors. She looks up as Odyssey enters.

"Hi, mom." She says. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Hi, kiddo." Odyssey strokes her daughter's fine hair once, softly. "What are you doing here? Where's Ann?"

"She was tired." Emily says. "She had been up for over 48 hours, and was practically falling off her feet. I wasn't sleepy, so I offered to take over."

Odyssey nods. She thinks better than telling Emily off for not going to sleep when she was told to. Emily is seventeen, incredibly independent and besides, there are more pressing matters at the moment.

"How's it going down there?" she asks, nodding in the direction of the monitors. "How is the invasion coming up?"

Emily looks away from her as she answers. "Not as smoothly as was anticipated."

"What do you mean?" Odyssey's voice sounds suspiciously calm, even to her own ears. Her heart is beating so hard she nearly faints.

"The virus is not kicking in well." Emily explains. "In most of North America, Europe and East Asia there are virtually no cases. The conditions in South America, the Middle East and Australia are not as good, but you only see many cases in African Countries, in Central America and in the poorer parts of Asia."

Odyssey is surprised. "It's a third world problem, then." She says. "How odd."

Emily gives her a quick look. "You wouldn't have anything to do with it, would you?"

Odyssey shakes her head. "No." She is not lying this time.

"They'll kill you if you did, you know." Emily says.

Odyssey shrugs. "They'll kill me anyway."

"Mom!" Emily shudders. "Don't talk like that, okay?"

Suddenly wondering if the girl remembers her adoptive mother at all, Odyssey strokes her hair again. "I'm sorry." She whispers.

Emily opens her mouth as if to say something, but apparently changes her mind. She looks at Odyssey shortly and then turns back to the monitors.

"Okay, I think I'll go give that sleep one more chance." Odyssey says, a bit too cheerfully. "Don't stay up too late, alright?"

Emily does not reply.

"Hey, mom." She says as Odyssey is about to leave.

"Yes?"

"The Super-Soldiers are acting funny, too. "

"Funny how?"

Emily hesitates. "Before…there was one primal who hatched, an early hatchling, and they…a couple of them killed it."

"Did they?"

"And they've been killing off the infected, too." Emily adds.

Odyssey is silent for a moment, lost in thought.

"Mom?" Emily's voice finally begins to shake. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, sweetheart." Odyssey says. "Just don't mention what you saw to anyone, okay?"

Emily again looks as if she is about to say something, but doesn't.

"Okay." She says shortly and turns her back to Odyssey who, without another word, closes the door behind her and leaves.

*

She does not go to sleep, though. At first she just wanders around the ship in disquiet, and suddenly realizes that she is headed for the dungeons. For reasons she cannot understand, she needs to see him again. His eyes are haunting her. Perhaps they always have.

The Greys she passes along the way greet her with nods of their heads. They do not try to read her mind, luckily. They stopped doing that after a few years, and that was when she started being bad. She still tries to think as little as she can about that, though. You never know who is listening, even in your own head.

The door to his cell is unlocked, but he is inside a paralysis field. He can speak and move his eyes, but is unable to move the rest of his body. When she enters the room, he is asleep.

Not wanting to disturb him, she silently closes the door behind her, blocking away the light of the hallway. She then thinks the command that will make the walls transparent, like windows. The living metal fades away to reveal starlight and a huge moon. Mulder believes that souls reside in starlight, and so does Dana. Poor pathetic suckers.

She sits on the floor by the door and watches him for a long time. He has grown so old since she last saw him. Yet he still has that troubled look on his face, even in sleep. She has seen that look many times before.

She thinks of the time she flew all the way to Puerto Rico to save him, and the time Deep Throat died. Mulder liked Deep Throat. He was a father figure to him. After him came X, but she didn't know much about him except that he was a jerk.

Mulder tosses his head in his sleep and softly calls for her. She nearly runs to him, but quickly remembers that he must mean Dana and stops herself. Dozens of miles below them, on the surface of the planet, unnamed atrocities are being committed in the name of progress, of one species claiming the living space of another. She silently mourns the dead and dying, the people of her own species being food and vessels, her mother, her brothers, her long lost biological son.

Up here it is incredibly quiet. The screams do not reach this far. The earth below looks peaceful, gently rolling around itself; a giant beast, sleeping. All you can hear are the occasional creaks of the ship's living metal, her own breaths, and Mulder's. His even breaths are soothing to her ears, even as they break to whisper the name, the one that used to be her own, eons and eons ago. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Scully's apartment has changed a lot over the years, and also that at some point she replaced most of her furniture, including that striped sofa I like so much. It's just that when I wrote this I honestly did not remember that this happened, and when I found out I decided to just leave it like this. I know it's just a piece of furniture but for some reason, whenever I think about Scully's apartment I think about that striped sofa. It reminds me of home. Of Scully's home, anyway.


	3. Mulder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He puts his arms around her, and they hold each other for a long time. She smells different, as you would expect after forty years, but her hair is as curly and as soft as ever. Her shoulders are shaking and he realizes that she is crying. That they are both crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this to the song "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" by Coldplay, from the album A Rush of Blood to the Head.

The sun shines onto his eyelids and they flutter open. He blinks slowly, staring straight at the sun, trying to understand why the sky around it is black, why he can still see stars. And then he remembers he's in outer space. He keeps looking, entranced, as a giant moon rolls into view, and then the Earth. His breath catches. He stares at the expanse of brown, green and blue, and wants to grab it, to reach out and touch it to know if it's real. He would, but he is still unable to move his limbs.

Now a sound filters into his attention. He has been hearing it before, but hadn't noticed. Someone is breathing in the room, even, calm breaths. With some effort, he lowers his head, and his breath catches again.

Scully is here. No, wait. He notices the titian hair, wavy at her shoulders; the extreme paleness of one who has not seen the sun in nearly twenty years; the simply cut fingernails on the small hands. This isn't Scully - it's Odyssey. She sits rested against the door of the room, fast asleep. Her pale lips are closed and her breath is even. She seems so peaceful it breaks his heart.

Although this one isn't hard: her entire presence here breaks his heart. Is she really the Scully he used to know? Has she really been here for eighteen years? Then who has he been living with? And what kind of a name is Odyssey, anyway!?

As he stares at her, her eyelids begin to flutter. She could always feel his gaze, right from the start. For all those years she would suddenly turn to look at him across the room, nod at him over the heads of other people. Was it her, or the Scully he knows? This is so confusing.

She blinks a few times and opens her eyes. For a moment she smiles at him absentmindedly.

"Hey." She says in her sweet morning voice, hoarse and muffled.

"Hey." He answers. His heart is beating too fast and he can't make it stop. He can't stop staring at her even as her face changes from a smile to a light frown to a panicked expression. He is transfixed by her eyes. The Scully he knows has blue eyes, as bright as a summer sky or as furious as a winter storm. But she used to have greener eyes, like the Scully here - Pacific Ocean turquoise, much softer eyes than the ones he knows.

As if suddenly realizing where she is, she jumps to her feet. Her hands move frantically on her fuzzy bathrobe, her matted hair, her warm cheeks.

"Oh, god." She says. "What time is it?"

He can't help but chuckle. "I'd check my watch for you, but I can't move my hands."

She stops fidgeting and stands there, her arms limp at her sides. She looks very small, but that's hardly new.

"Yeah, that's the paralysis field." She says. "It's how they prevent you from running away."

He sniggers. "They could have just locked the door." His voice is bitter, and she gives him a cautious look. "Anyway, we're in outer space, right? How far could I get without exploding?"

"I think what worries them is the ship exploding." Odyssey says quietly.

He stops to think for a moment. "Could I do that?" he asks finally, and is rewarded with a half-smile.

Odyssey seems to be in no hurry to go. She leans back against the door, hands in her bathrobe pockets, her face hidden behind her auburn mane.

Mulder puts his head back down, looking out into space, into the wide expanse of nothingness surrounding the beloved greenish-blue planet he calls 'home'.

"I didn't know this place had windows." He says.

"They're not really windows. The ship has the ability to become transparent." Odyssey explains. "I asked it to last night and it did, at least in this room."

He looks back at her. "You asked the ship?"

Odyssey nods, then looks away and shrugs with one shoulder. "It's made of organic metal. It's like them, able to read minds. If you think right, it will respond."

Mulder is quiet for some time. Finally she asks "What are you doing?" and he answers "Trying to get it to screen my triple X channel, but it's not working."

Odyssey smiles.

Mulder is looking at Earth again.

"How are things down there?" He asks. "Do you know anything about the invasion?"

She remains quiet for such a long time that he wonders if she'd heard him at all. But she did - her eyes, when he looks at her, are wide open and terrified.

"Scully?" He asks. She does not correct him this time, but does not respond either. "O...Odyssey? Is something wrong?"

She shakes her head.

"I have to go." She says. "Emily was taking over for Ann at the intelligence bay, and I want to make sure she went to sleep."

"Who's Ann?" Mulder asks. "You say her name like I'm supposed to know her."

"You do know her." Odyssey says in a very quiet voice. He stares into her eyes for the longest time and does not find the courage to ask 'from where?'

She turns to leave, but he calls after her. "Odyssey?"

"Yes?" She asks.

"Do you know anything about Scu-about my Scully? Is she...is she alive? Is she hurt?"

All color drains from her face.

"I'm sorry to ask this." He says quickly. "I imagine it's painful for you, but I...I need to know she's alright."

Odyssey closes her wonderful turquoise eyes.

"I'll try and find out." She says.

She opens her eyes and for a moment they are searching his face.

"It's unnerving." She says. "No one read my mind since the Greys stopped 15 years ago, and suddenly _you_ come along".

He does not have time to respond before she turns abruptly and leaves.

*

The next time the door opens, it is already past noon. Not that he'd know - the light on the ship is never changing. He can see the sun but the sky around it is always the pitch black of space. He doesn't bother to lift his head.

"What is it now?" He asks.

"Now is lunch time." An unfamiliar voice answers. Actually that is not true. It _is_ familiar, in a bowel-clenching sort of way. "Can you sit up?"

"Can't move." He says. "Paralysis field."

"Okay then." The voice says, and he hears the clacking of a tray being put down on the floor, and the click of a lock. "I'm going to lift it now. The door is locked, so you've got nowhere to go, alright?"

"Whatever."

"Close your eyes." She says, but he doesn't.

An electric field flickers momentarily before his eyes, half blinding him. He sits up, covering his eyes with his hands, and suddenly realizes he can move again.

"Ow!" He says and she scolds him "I told you to close your eyes."

He hears her pick up the tray again and approach him, and he takes his hands off his eyes to look at her. His heart contracts forcefully, hurting him. She has dark curly hair, fair skin, big blue eyes and a cleft chin.

"Samantha?" He asks weakly.

"Actually, I go by Ann now." Samantha says, smiling at him. "Here, take the tray. There's French toast and maple syrup. I know it's probably not what you want, but it's all I could do with what we have up here."

He looks at her thoughtfully. "You're a clone." He says as he takes the tray from her.

She shakes her head. "Actually, no. I'm the real deal. Heard you've been looking for me for some time now."

He sniggers. "Try forty years."

"Liar." She says. "You thought I was dead."

"My sister _is_ dead." He says. "Whoever you say you are."

She rolls her eyes. "Oh, please. Did you really believe all that stuff about starlight?"

"I saw you." He waves his hand absently in the air. "You said goodbye."

"That was a hologram." She says. "And not even a good one. That girl looked nothing like me! I always thought you believed it because it was more convenient to."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't bullshit me, Fox. You were tired of looking for me. You were tired of everything."

"Shut up, will you?" He loses his patience. "I don't know who or what you are, but that is none of your business."

"I'm your sister!" She says, jumping to her feet. "Your _sister_ , you moron! I've been watching you for years, you know. You've had plenty of clues that I am alive, and yet you go and believe that stupid light trick and abandon me!"

"What do you mean, you've been watching me?" Mulder asks, forgetting the French toast mid-bite.

But Samantha does not listen. "You saw a _recent_ tissue sample in that mine in West Virginia. You heard those clones tell you that they had me. Even Cassandra Spender told you that I was up here! But you? You go ahead and believe that I died at fourteen. _Fourteen_ , Fox! How could you believe that?!"

"I saw too many clones of you over the years." He says. "Why would I believe you now?"

"Would you like me to cut myself to see if I bleed green?" She hisses.

"Scully always bled red, but that didn't mean anything, did it?" He mutters bitterly.

Samantha exhales, exasperated. "Fine." She says, and pulls up her shirt.

"What are you doing?!" Mulder asks, alarmed. He has no desire to see his sister's breasts, even if they are only cloned ones.

"Relax." Samantha says. "I'm only showing you my scar."

One hand holding the hem of the shirt and the other pointing at the lower right side of her belly, Samantha points out a small red surgical scar, over forty years old.

"Remembers this, Fox?" She asks. "When I was seven, I had appendicitis. I had to go through an emergency surgery, and when I woke up you were in my room." She lets the hem of the shirt fall back down. "You were holding a wrapped box. You said it was to pass the time until I am better. Remember what was in that box?"

Mulder does not respond.

"It was a game of Stratego. It was our favorite game for a long time."

"I hate it now." Mulder says.

Samantha smiles sadly. "I bet you need more proof, huh?"

He nods.

"So much for wanting to believe…" she sighs. "Here." She lifts up her hair and turns around.

Mulder looks at her neck and says "I know, I know...no spinal deformities. Scully doesn't have them either."

"Yeah, I know, that's not what I meant." Samantha says impatiently. "Look closer."

Mulder squints. He cannot see too well without his reading glasses. But eventually he notices it.

"Oh." He says weakly. "Is that what I think it is?"

"It depends what you think it is." Samantha says, turning to face him.

"Your…shoulder blade." He says. "It's the scar from the time you fell down the cliff and broke it." Mulder says.

Samantha laughs, relieved. "Here's another one. This one is from when I fell from my bike and broke my arm, remember?"

Mulder exhales slowly. "We had one rough childhood, didn't we?"

"What are you talking about? It was great!" she exclaims.

Mulder sighs sadly. "I bet it wasn't that great after you were abducted."

Samantha leans down and caresses his cheek. "I bet you've had it worse than I did."

He puts his arms around her, and they hold each other for a long time. She smells different, as you would expect after forty years, but her hair is as curly and as soft as ever. Her shoulders are shaking and he realizes that she is crying. That they are both crying.

"It's been so long..." she mumbles.

He pushes her away, holding her at arm's length.

"You were here the whole time?" He asks.

She shakes her head. "No. For a few years I lived at that air force base, with our father and Geoffrey. It was before Cassandra returned, of course."

"Why of course?" He asks, and she says "Would you want to raise the child your husband had with his lover?"

He smiles. "I'm hoping my husband won't cheat on me."

She sniggers.

"Anyway, those first few years they would just take me sometimes, for tests. After Cassandra returned, though, I was moved here for good. I was fourteen then."

Mulder nods. "Starlight."

She smiles. "Try tractor beam. Anyway, back then I thought about you all the time. I didn't remember you too well, but I prayed that you would find me. Every night I prayed, and didn't mind when the Greys punished me for insubordination."

"Why me?" He asks. "Why not mom and dad?"

She shakes her head. "Dad was never around when we were growing up. And mom was an emotional wreck, she used to drink even then. You were the only family member who truly felt like family. Sure, we would fight, but you'd take care of me. I remembered that."

He closes his eyes. "But I never found you."

"Don't worry about it." She says. "I stopped praying at some point. I guess I grew out of it. I started listening to the Greys and eventually learned to communicate with them. I guess they appreciated it, because they started giving me responsibilities."

"Like what?"

"They taught me to use their computers and eventually, after ten years or so, made me in charge of visual intelligence."

"What's that?" He asks, even though he has a guess.

Samantha sits against the transparent wall, giving the strange impression that she is about to fall into space.

"I was to collect all the data transported by the cameras - ours and others - and follow our subjects around."

"Subjects?"

"Abductees, replacements, super-soldiers. Anyway, eventually I came across you. You were talking to one of the women I was following, but the moment I saw you, I knew it was you."

Mulder is astonished. "When was this?"

"About twenty years ago."

"Right when I discovered the X Files." Mulder says and Samantha nods.

"It was some time before Odyssey came along." She says. "She joined you, and then...you guys got too close."

"So she was taken."

"Yes." Samantha sighs. "They wanted to kill her, but I wouldn't let them, so they put her on the experiments instead. Then they found out she had a real skill in medicine and sciences, and they really wanted her on the project, but she wouldn't, so..."

This time Mulder sighs. "So she was replaced."

Samantha nods. "For two purposes: so that you would not get too far looking for her, and also so that she would lose hope of getting her life back."

"It worked, then." Mulder says. He wants to die, partly because he is sorry for Odyssey, but mostly because he still misses the Scully he left at home, gun to the face and all.

For a while the siblings are silent. Eventually Samantha stands up and stretches. "I should get going." She says. "Emily was taking over for me at the intelligence bay, but Odyssey gets upset if I leave her up there for too long, so..."

"Why do you call her Odyssey?" Mulder asks as she heads for the door.

Samantha smiles. "It's a pun, actually. Initials for Original Dana Catherine."

"But she spells her middle name with a K." Mulder points out and Samantha chuckles. "Yeah, that's what she used to say too."

She opens the door now. "Take care, big brother. I'm going to ask them to let you out soon. It's not like there's a lot of damage you can do anyway, and it might do you good to move around a little."

"Samantha?" He asks as she is about to leave. "Do you know anything about Scully? My Scully, I mean. Is she alright down there?"

Samantha's eyes grow dark, but eventually she nods. "I'll find out." She says, and leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This, I think, was the hardest chapter to write for me. There were a few versions of it before I settled on this one. I hope you liked it. Thanks to everyone who left kudos. I've been writing fanfic for about 20 years but it was always a private thing for me, so now that I've finally decided to share it I'm glad to see that other people like it.


	4. Odyssey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This amino-acid here, that one there - the Greys had the human genome figured out long before its mapping was completed on earth. Odyssey had been using it to their needs for ages. Now she was using it for hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written to the song "The Scientist", by Coldplay. "Back to the start" is a direct quote from this song.

Emily is asleep in the intelligence bay. Her head is rested on the small desk, strawberry-blond hair spread around it. Odyssey touches it, letting her fingers run through it slowly, timidly. It is smooth and soft, but thick, not as fine as hers.

The girl mumbles something as she rises from sleep.

"What's that?" Odyssey asks.

"What time is it?" Emily asks. She lifts her head, shying away from her mother's hand. Odyssey clenches her fist momentarily, letting her fingers draw comfort in each other.

"Half past nine." Odyssey says. "You're running late."

"Am I?" Emily says. She yawns hugely, than adds "Fuck."

"Emily!" Odyssey scolds. "Watch your mouth."

"Yes, Ma'am."

A tense silence follows. Emily tries to arrange her hair, than gives up and ties it in a ponytail. Odyssey secretly smiles to herself: now mother and daughter look alike.

"Okey Doke." Emily says. "I better get down to the clone chamber. I probably need to change their water and stuff."

"Who's gonna take over here?" Odyssey asks.

"Oh, could you?" Asks Emily. "Ann is beside herself with this new prisoner thing. She went to ask the Greys how to make French toast."

"That's ridiculous." Odyssey says as she takes a seat. "How would the Greys know how to make French toast?!"

"I dunno." Emily shrugs. "Probably read it in someone's head. Gotta go."

"Emily." Odyssey stops her at the door.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where your brother is?"

"Yeah, he's down at the simulation bay. Been working on the new piloting gear. It's amazing really, he's - -"

"Pink elephant!" Odyssey calls, and Emily freezes.

After a while she says "What?"

"Do me a favor, stop by there on your way to the cloning chamber and tell him to come home at once, okay? He's been up there for three days already. He needs a shower. And probably food as well."

Emily smiles. "I wonder where he got this obsession with his work."

"His father, I presume." Odyssey replies, but smiles nonetheless.

After Emily leaves, Odyssey runs some video data of the invasion. She watches two hatchlings eating a poor woman alive. And then two Super-Soldiers arrive, killing these hatchlings and about two dozen others. Her heart is pounding. She wonders why the Greys haven't done anything yet.

*

It was years before it occurred to her to change the behavioral genetic makeup. Actually, she was so used to the Greys reacting to her every thought that even after they stopped listening it took years to start thinking again.

Dana had just been cured from the cancer that had been implanted in her as a self-destruct mechanism. All human replacements were destroyed when they took out the chip that was meant to control them; as autonomous beings they were useless. Mulder and Scully did not know this, of course. All they knew was that Scully got cancer when she took out the chip, and that she was better after a new chip was inserted.

Long before reality TV became the monster it would turn out to be, Ann followed this whole scenario with fascination. It was like a soap-opera to her, only real. She kept telling Odyssey how amazing Mulder and Scully were, how close and special a relationship they had, but stopped after she finally realized how all of it made Odyssey feel.

And what it made her feel was lonely, sad, and sick to her stomach. She would sit in the intelligence bay next to Ann, eating popcorn and watching herself dying, watching Mulder tear at the seams from worry and angst.

She could never last more than a few minutes of it.

So she found sanctuary in the lab. The lab was quiet, even though the ship sometimes made florescent-light buzzing to make it more genuine. That day it probably forgot, being preoccupied with Ann and her soap-opera. Odyssey wondered if being bitter at the ship for being interested in the relationship of Mulder with that _thing_ is stupid. Probably. And to think that all of it was solved simply by reinstating the control mechanism.

And then it hit her.

She wasn't in charge of the chips, they were manufactured in Japan by a member of the consortium; but she did know how they worked: they sent signals that triggered certain responses in the brain - but it wasn't just any brain. The human replacements were adjusted so they would be susceptible to the control. Dana wasn't amazing at obeying, but she was a prototype. The newer versions were much better. Almost machine-like.

So what if she could make them react differently?

They were only machines. At the intelligence bay, Ann watched Dana being released from the hospital, cared for by Mulder like she was a unique, rare gem. In the lab, Odyssey squinted at the computer screen (they never got her proper reading glasses, the bastards) and started configuring. Physics, Physiology, Genetics, they were her playground. And she loved to play.

*

Ann returns to the intelligence bay in the afternoon, her eyes shining. Odyssey can't help but smile when she sees her.

"So?" She asks. "How was it?"

Ann smiles. "Same old brother." She says. "As annoying as ever. Had to run so he would not pull my hair."

"Liar."

Ann sits down. "How're things in here?"

Odyssey purses her lips.

"That bad, huh?"

Odyssey shakes her head.

"Promise me something, Samantha." She says.

Ann pales. "It must be serious for you to call me Samantha." She says.

Odyssey nods.

"Promise me that if anything happens to me you will take care of Emily and Andrew. Especially Emily, don't let her think she's a grownup and ruin what's left of her youth."

"Do you also want me to find William and take care of him, too?" Ann asks sarcastically.

"If you can, yeah, why not."

"Dana, come on!" Ann says, ignoring Odyssey's flinch at the name. "What's going on? You're not about to kill yourself, are you?"

Odyssey shakes her head. "No. Just Promise me, Samantha. Ann. Promise."

"Okay, okay, I promise." Ann says.

"Thank you."

Ann sighs. "You look like you could use some cleaning up. You're still in your pajamas, if Captain Jack sees you he'll flip. More than he does already, anyway."

"Really? He's flipping?" Odyssey feels herself paling. "Why?"

Ann smiles conspiratorially. "It seems our little friend has been vaccinating people. Not to mention there's something wrong with the Super Soldiers."

"What do you mean, something wrong?"

"Come on. Like you haven't noticed they've been killing the hatchlings. Something must be wrong with the control software. They're trying to find out what."

"Interesting." Odyssey says, and her tone of voice makes Ann gaze at her intently. "How unfortunate for them."

"For who?" Ann asks, but Odyssey is already at the door.

"Gotta shower." She says. "I smell like the dungeon floor."

"Oh, they'll let him out, by the way." Ann says and Odyssey stops mid-step.

"Who?"

"Fox. I talked to Jakogihonichtian. He said he'll think about it, which is practically like 'yes' in his book."

"Oh." Odyssey says. "Hmm. Make sure he doesn't wander in here, though. I don't want him to see her."

"Who?" Ann asks. Odyssey points to the left-hand screen. If features a small motel room, dimly lit by the remnants of the evening sun. Inside there is a woman, seemingly sleeping. Her chest rises and falls in even breaths. Her lips, full and soft, are slightly open. Even in sleep, she is deeply beautiful. Odyssey wonders if they made _it_ this beautiful just to spite her.

"She's been like this for over thirty hours now." She explains. "If this continues, she'll surely die from dehydration."

"You don't seem too sad about it." Ann remarks.

"I'm not. Have fun watching the massacre."

"I'll try." Ann says. As Odyssey leaves, she sees her zooming in on the face of the sleeping Dana-replacement. The thing mumbles in it sleep, for a moment struggling to wake up. Odyssey closes the door a little louder than she intended.

*

This amino-acid here, that one there - the Greys had the human genome figured out long before its mapping was completed on earth. Odyssey had been using it to their needs for ages. Now she was using it for hers. It wasn't hard to do, once she figured out how. It involved a reversing mechanism - where the replacements were supposed to help the hatchlings, they would slay them. Where they were meant to hurt the humans, they would protect. The work took years, after which the reversing mechanism was installed in the genetic makeup of all replacements.

Her problem was with the older models, the ones that were out of her control; Dana in particular, whom she feared would do something to hurt her mother or Mulder. However, in the meantime she showed no such inclination, and there were more pressing matters to deal with. The Greys and their cousins, the nasty shape-shifters, were always working on newer versions of human replacements. She was always in a struggle to keep her reversing mechanism up to date. It was like chasing her own tail.

The Greys had an idea of making the manufacture the work of a virus, not dissimilar to the virus which they themselves used to breed. The newer replacements, also termed "super soldiers", would not have a chip inside them; their metal skeleton would carry all the information they need, and would function as the control. Their prominent cervical vertebra was not only a way of recognizing them; it was also where the control mechanism was placed. So she had a lot of work to do, for the Greys and for herself, but that was about the time Mulder got that nasty brain disease.

She was so worried about him while he was in the hospital, and so spiteful about that Fowly woman, that she even forgot to be mad at Dana for stealing her life. On the contrary: she was somewhat relieved that Mulder was in good hands. Unfortunately, fascinated with the events, she was sitting with Ann in the intelligence bay so much that she was scolded for it and lost her viewing privileges for a month. It was Ann who told her how Dana went to Africa in order to find the answers, and how she took care of him after the smoking man - his and Ann's father - nearly killed him in surgery. It wasn't an easy time.

But Odyssey took advantage of the punishment to carry on working, improving the mechanism, losing track of day and night. The Greys' respect for her dedication grew immensely in those days, but the truth is she was really having fun. Science always made her feel thrilled, alive to her toes, and she would only come out of the lab when it was time to feed the children.

Emily was six years old and Andrew just one. He was magical to Odyssey. She would sing to him, change him and feed him, dance around the room with him in her arms. He was a miracle: a completely normal human baby, one of a kind. Emily was loved as well, but she was something else. She was part _them_ ; she could talk to them and really understand them. And they trusted her. Her fascination with the clones would eventually lead to her assignment to the cloning chamber.

Odyssey was also fascinated with Ann. She knew that Ann knew she was up to something. Ann knew everything and saw everything. She knew. But she never said a word about it. Odyssey was sure she never even _thought_ about it. Ann was a master of managing the Greys.

By the time Odyssey was allowed back in the intelligence bay Mulder didn't even have bandages on anymore. He and Dana were closer than ever. Ann told her she was better off not seeing the smut. Of course there was no smut: it was Mulder, after all, and he thought Dana too perfect to actually make a move on. And anyway, Odyssey suspected Dana was a real frigid.

"It's funny, you know, how you have identical genes, but she still dresses way better than you do." Ann said.

"She also doesn't really eat." Odyssey said. "I think they mixed in some supermodel genes or something."

"You know, that would actually make sense if she wasn't so damn short." Ann replied placidly.

"Don't say that." Odyssey said. "I'd like to believe that I have a genetic resistance to make-overs."

"Well, you don't." Ann said. "But since this spaceship is short on malls at the moment, I'll let it slide."

Odyssey had nothing to say to that.

*

Inside her quarters there is silence, and the faint smell of food. In the sink she finds a recently used plate, and on the table a note scribbled in a hurry: "Hey mom, Emily said you were worried. Ate Pasta. Had to go do something for Captain Jack. Be back later, Andy."

She sighs. Boys will be boys. She washes the plates and sits down with her old photo albums. When Ann had her apartment moved she left nothing behind. Of course, she didn't know what had been Odyssey's and what had been Dana's, so Odyssey found many things she didn't even know she owned. She threw away all the underwear, but kept treasures like the knee-length jackets and silk shirts. She could never really wear them, though. They just weren't her style.

The photos had been a comfort, though. She had albums of her family and childhood, and even one filled with William's baby pictures; funny, she didn't even know what he looked like until then. She never saw the baby in person, and really thought of him as Dana's baby, but she still kept a picture of him on the nightstand.

But right now she is not looking for family photos. Beside the albums is something else: a simple cardboard box. Inside it are mish-mashed photos of Mulder and her. Well, most of them are of Dana, but some of them really are her. She treasures these few photos without even knowing why. She picks them delicately, one by one. Here is one from the time we went to Allen's Air Force Base. Here's the picture we took before we flew out to Alaska on that case with those creepy ice-worms. Here's one from the time we weren't even partners anymore. Who even took this picture?! Oh, and here's one from our very first case together. Someone took that for the local paper, I think. God, I was so young. And he so handsome. Look at us.

They are smiling in the picture. Well, not exactly smiling. They're looking at each other, he's probably saying something absurd because she has that face on, already she has that face on, frustrated and amused and somewhat affectionate. She absentmindedly sends a finger to touch her image. So young. I was so young. She wants more than anything to go back those times. Back to when everything was open around her and between them. Back to the start.


	5. Mulder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He also knows that she sees into his soul. For a moment he feels like he is betraying Scully, and then waves the thought away; Odyssey could do it too, back when she was still Scully. She could read his mind across a crowded room. He bets she still can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last time someone appears in Mulder's cell door, I swear.  
> This chapter was written to "Clocks" by Coldplay, from the album "A Rush of Blood to the Head".

Underneath, the earth keeps rolling.

Underneath, the sun rises and sets indifferently. Waves crash against the shore. The wind blows. And the birds, do they sing? Should he mind that his fish are probably dead? And what about Scully?

Again that pang of regret. Will it always be like this now? Always at the thought of Scully there will be Odyssey haunting him, always at the thought of Odyssey there will be Scully?

The sound of the lock interrupts his musings. He lifts his head indifferently, and is once more surprised. A boy is standing there. A boy of about thirteen. He is already starting to develop the lanky limbs that would characterize him in adulthood. He is looking at Mulder with hazel eyes hiding under messy dark hair.

"W-William?" Mulder asks. He can't help it.

The boy smirks. "Who? No. It's Andy. Andrew, really. But everyone calls me Andy."

"Oh." Mulder sags against the wall in disinterest. "Sure. What do you want, Andy?"

"Nothin'." The boy says. "Cap'n Jack told me to go get you. So I'm here. Are you coming?"

"Going where, exactly?" Mulder grunts. "I don't really know where I am right now."

The boy shrugs. "You can stay here for all I care." He says. "But the Cap'n said you might feel more comfortable somewhere else."

"That's nice of him." Mulder says sarcastically. "Is he always this kind?"

The boy sniggers. "Are you kidding? He's horrible. He was in a good mood because he was just torturing a Samantha when I passed by. You'd better take the chance before he goes back to his old self and has you tested on or something."

This gets Mulder's attention. "What do you mean, torturing Samantha?!"

He jumps to his feet before he even realizes it. The boy takes an unconscious step backwards, lifting his hands up to appease him.

"No, not Ann, if that's who you mean. _A Samantha_. One of her clones."

Now Mulder is confused. "There's a term for Samantha's clones?"

The boy smirks. "Yeah. The Greys love to torment them. They have a special section at the cloning chamber just for them. It's, like, their favorite sports."

"Why?"

The boy shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe you should ask Ann. They're _her_ clones."

"But doesn't she mind?" Mulder asks, bewildered.

"Don't think so." Andy says. "C'mon, they're just clones."

Mulder shakes his head, momentarily speechless.

"Come on." The boy urges. "Let's get outta here. I need to get you to mom's and then I have to go. I do have things to do, you know."

Mulder sighs. "Fine." He says grudgingly, but follows the boy out of the room.

They walk quietly for some time in the seemingly deserted hallways. The other prison cells are empty; Andy does not know what happened to the prisoners, nor does he seem to care. He seems like a perfectly normal, happy boy. That scares Mulder a little, really.

"Where is everyone?" Mulder asks after it strikes him that they didn't meet anyone yet. Andy explains that most of them are out monitoring the invasion.

"It's really only the cap'n and a few assistants up here right now." Andy says, "and us humans. Even Emily, but I'm not sure she qualifies as human. Oh, and the clones, of course, but they don't really count."

"Wait, which humans are you talking about exactly?" Mulder asks. "How many are there?"

"Let's see," Andy says, "There's mom, there's Ann, there's me...Emily is mostly human, I guess...and now there's you."

"What, that's it?" Mulder is genuinely surprised. "What about abductees? What about experiments?"

Andy shrugs. "I don't know. I guess they don't need them anymore. Most of them were replaced anyway. The rest were incubators. So they're gone."

"Incubators?" Mulder asks, though he has a good guess.

"You know, for the hatchlings. Primal Greys. Virus boys." Andy does not look at him, and for the first time Mulder gets the sense that he is really distressed. He lets go of the subject, not wanting to upset the boy any more.

They move in silence through the dimly lit halls. Here and there they pass an alien; Mulder tries to hide his excitement, especially seeing how indifferent Andy is. They ignore him, and Andy ignores them, until they pass a certain door and hear screams from inside.

"That's the cap'n in there." Andy whispers. There is a small window at the door and they stop to peek. Mulder shudders to see Samantha ( _a_ Samantha, he reminds himself) flung against the wall, crying. She is oozing green blood from several cuts in her body.

"I thought they don't feel pain." He whispers to Andy.

"They don't." Andy says. "It knows he wants it to scream."

The screams stop. The clone falls to its knees, begging. A willowy Grey nears her, and she shrinks with fear. Mulder feels a little queasy. The Alien approaches the clone with menace, then suddenly stops on its tracks. It turns to the door, its huge black eyes locking with Mulder's. Aliens don't usually show emotion, but Mulder feels the deep fury and hatred behind those eyes.

"He is really ma-ad." Andy whispers, Urging Mulder to get out of there by pulling at his sleeve. "C'mon. Let's go. C'mon."

Mulder lets himself be pulled just as the alien slams the shades of the small window shut. Inside the chamber the screams begin anew.

Andy exhales slowly. "Lucky. It's a good thing he had that Samantha in there, otherwise you never would've made it to mom's."

_He's only afraid for me_ , Mulder thought, _He's not worried about himself at all._

And then another thought struck him. "Wait, Andy, who did you say your mother was?"

"Odyssey, of course." The boy says. "I thought it was obvious."

Mulder does not respond. He silently lets the boy lead him down the long, dim halls.

*

The cream-white door stands out in the dim hallway like a lily in a marsh. Mulder stops for a minute, staring. The '35' still hangs there, as always. If he focuses on the door it's almost like this whole spaceship surroundings disappear and he's in Scully's old, warmly lit hallway. Well, during a power breakout, maybe.

Andy says "Look, man, I said I'd bring you here and I did, but I don't have all day. I gotta go."

"What's so important?" Mulder implores and the boy says "what you can't think about can't get you caught."

In a moment he's gone down the hall. Flustered, Mulder knocks.

"Come in!"

His heart is pounding, his mouth dry. He opens the door softly and finds himself ten years ago. Odyssey is sitting on the old sofa in Scully's old Georgetown apartment. For a moment he forgets who she is and thinks she is Scully, and then remembers this is not even her apartment, it's Scully's, and then realizes he is actually wrong. It _is_ her apartment. Except that most of the memories he has from here are of things that happened with this other Scully.

She is looking at some photos, and he looks at her. He cannot stop looking at her, studying the characteristics, the differences: darker hair, lighter skin, greener eyes. He misses Scully.

Odyssey lifts her eyes to meet his. For a moment they are both locked in a stare. Neither of them can break free, it is stronger than them. Even now, after all this time, he can see straight into her soul. What he sees there scares him: she is resigned, and seems to have lost all hope. What happened to her?

He also knows that she sees into his soul. For a moment he feels like he is betraying Scully, and then waves the thought away; Odyssey could do it too, back when she was still Scully. She could read his mind across a crowded room. He bets she still can.

She opens her mouth to say something and then closes it. With what he knows is extreme effort she averts her eyes. She quickly drops the pictures in her hand into a small box and out of sight.

"I see they let you out." She says eventually, to no one in particular.

"Yeah." He says. "I met your son. Nice kid."

"Andrew? Yeah, he's a good kid." She gives a short, bitter laughter. "I wish I got to see him more often."

"He isn't William, is he?" Mulder asks. He has to ask.

She shakes her head. "No. I'm sorry, I don't know where William is."

"Do you even care?"

Now her eyes are back on him, flashing in anger. "Of course I care! He is my son, after all."

"He's not yours, he's Scully's." Mulder corrects.

"No, he's mine." Odyssey answers. "Scully can't have children."

"She had William!" Mulder insists. "Emily was made from her ova, as well. From the ova that was stolen from her."

Odyssey sighs deeply. "They were _my_ ova, Mulder, taken from me when I was experimented on. Emily was made from my ova, and so was William." Her voice is tired. Hollow.

"But..." He starts to say, and cannot find a way to continue.

"They did not take all my ova, by the way. They really didn't need it all. The reason Dana can't have children is because the replacements are all sterile."

"But...how did she have William, then?" Mulder insists.

"Sit down." Odyssey asks. "I can't talk to you when you're towering over me like that."

He sits. First on the edge of the sofa, but little by little he is drawn by its comfort, its familiarity. God, he always loved this apartment. It was always more of a home to him than his own.

"Okay." He finally says. "But explain to me how it is that Scully became pregnant with William."

Odyssey sighs again. "Your father was in on it."

"My father?"

"The smoking man. He delivered her and they transplanted the fetus."

He is bewildered. "But how? When?"

She looks straight at him now. This is the Scully who checked his neck for killer-worms in that research station in the arctic. He still remembers it, the touch of her small hands sending shivers down his spine. This is the Scully smiling patiently at his adult-only habits; laughing in the rain; leaning close to him to whisper 'sucker' in his ear. He sees traces of her in this strange woman.

"Remember the time she ran off with him on some mission? He promised her something, a cure for all ailments, remember that?" she asks.

He nods.

"Did she ever tell you what happened during that trip?" Odyssey implores.

He shakes his head. "Not in detail. Why?"

"It was during that trip." Odyssey explains. "At some point she fell asleep and woke up in her pajamas. He told her she had been delirious from lack of sleep, while actually she had been implanted with the fetus. With William."

Mulder shakes his head. "She never told me."

"She doesn't remember." Odyssey explains. "It's that thing, up here, at the back of her neck." She touches a soft finger where Scully has the chip, "it makes her forget."

Mulder is quiet for a long time. And then he asks "but why? Why give her a baby?"

"They wanted one from me for their experiments. Emily I saved when she was three years old, and Andrew was supposed to be the payback but he was no good to them, so they wanted another go." Odyssey explains.

"Why is Andy no good to them?" He asks, and recognizes a smile flutter in her eyes when she hears him call her son 'Andy'.

"He is too human." She explains. "They wanted a hybrid."

"Then why not make you have him?" He implores.

"The project was at a critical point at the time. They needed me to have a clear head for work. And she really wanted a baby, so they thought they'd give it to her." Odyssey says.

"And am I, is he...am I really his father?" Mulder asks, his throat contracted in pain. Odyssey smiles kindly, puts her hand on his knee and looks up into his eyes.

"I don't know." She says softly.

Mulder closes his eyes in pain and she hastily removes her hand.

"Sometimes I think Andrew is." She says. "He reminds me of you. Ann swears up and down he looks just like you did as a kid. But I don't know for sure."

They are both quiet for some time.

"The truth is I never bothered to find out who the kids' father or fathers were. It was enough that they were mine." She says very quietly.

Mulder looks at her. She scares him a little. She is much harder than the Scully he knows. This is not a woman to start crying for no good reason. Scully used to be like that, too. He misses that, sometimes.

"Though Ann probably knows." Odyssey says. "She's been in charge of visual intelligence for over two decades now. She knows everything."

"Does she know how Scully is?" He asks. She lowers her gaze and keeps her eyes away from him. That is what gives her away.

"Please." He takes her hand. "Please, Odyssey. Dana. Please, I'm begging you. I need to know she is alright. I don't care if she is human or not, I just - please."

Her lips purse. She makes some sounds of exasperation, but eventually her inner struggle is determined. She leans closer and says to his face "Fine. I'll help you, but only because I don't have much time anyway. I'll take you to see her, but don't say I didn't warn you. Let me just change into some actual clothes first."

She goes into the bedroom for a couple of minutes and returns, not even looking at him when she walks out the door. Even in his angst and confusion, he still can't help but notice how small and sweet she is, marching like that in her oversized clothes. His heart is filled with affection, even against his will. It was just like this the first time she stepped into his office, all those years ago. She had him captivated the moment he first laid eyes on her.

*

The tiny, crammed office is not what he had in mind when she told him they were going to the intelligence bay. The room is filed to the brim with masses of electronic equipment and monitors, monitors, monitors everywhere.

Between all those monitors is the dark curly head of Samantha, watching intently and typing notes in the strange alien hieroglyphic language. When she sees him she stops and jumps out of her seat to hug him.

"Fox! What a pleasant surprise!"

"Hi, Sam." He buries his face in her neck.

"Hey, Odd, always nice to see you here too. What's up?"

"We need to see Dana." Odyssey says quietly. Her voice is calm, level. He can feel the fathomless sadness inside her, and yet none of it seeps to her voice.

"Oh." Samantha grows serious. "I thought you said - "

"I know what I said." Odyssey says. She sounds tense. "Just show her."

"Oh, alright." Samantha surrenders. "There's not much else going on anyway."

"What do you mean?" Mulder asks. "Are you monitoring the invasion?"

Samantha smirks. "Some invasion. Two thirds of the world not infected, and the rest taken care of by the super soldiers. There are hardly any active hatchlings right now. None managed to reach full gestation."

"Is that why...I saw your captain earlier. He seems furious. He was..." Mulder stops midsentence, embarrassed, but Samantha just shrugs "Tormenting one of me. Yeah, he always does that. He just loves killing me, that one."

"The invasion is failing." Odyssey says quietly, almost as if she needs to hear the words aloud to believe them.

Samantha is too wise to reply to that. Instead she lifts a finger to one monitor and says "there she is. Still asleep."

On the monitor they see the peaceful image of Scully in bed, breathing softly. Mulder leans closer to look at her. Her hair spills down on the pillow, her face soft. She is so beautiful.

"How long has she been asleep?" He asks.

"Since you last saw her." Samantha replies. "Nearly two days now."

"She's probably dehydrated by now." Odyssey says softly. "The chip is making her sleep. She will not wake up on her own."

"So if we don't save her she'll...die?" he can barely stand to say the word.

"I'm not sure." Odyssey admits. "They're pretty hard to kill. In a sense they're immortal, although Scully is an early model so I'm not sure how she'll - - "

"I must go to her." Mulder says. He feels more determined than ever.

"How?" Samantha asks. "Can you fly a spacecra-"

"Pink elephant!" Odyssey calls, and both Samantha and Mulder stare at her.

"What?" They ask eventually, in unison.

"I'll take you." Odyssey says. "Don't look at me like that, Ann. You know they're going to kill me anyway. They don't need me anymore, now that the invasion is underway."

"What invasion?!" Samantha points at a monitor where a female super soldier shoots an infected woman in the stomach, killing human and alien in one.

Odyssey says nothing. Samantha looks at her imploringly.

"You've seen the captain lately, haven't you?" Odyssey turns to Mulder. "How did he seem to you?"

"Like he's in a blind rage." Mulder answers quietly. "Don't tell me it's because of you."

"I not sure he knows that." She says. "Or if he knows and is merely tormenting me with fear. Either way I'm done for. And I want to help you before that happens."

"I thought you liked to play by the book." Mulder says.

She lifts her eyes to his and they are actually amused. "Only if I believe in the book."

*

Now they are running through the halls. Mulder can't help but feel the walls closing in on them as an invisible clock mercilessly ticks away Scully's life, their life. Odyssey is keeping up with him, light-footed in sneakers. Samantha is following suit, barefoot.

All of a sudden Odyssey stops. She turns to Samantha.

"Wait," she tells her, "I need you to do what we talked about."

"What?" Samantha turns white. "What we - but Odyssey, it's…"

"There is no time." Odyssey says. "Please, Ann. I need you to get the kids."

"But Odd..."

"Shh. Get the kids. Andrew would know what to do. Pink elephant. Go."

Samantha hesitates a moment longer, but then nods and runs in a different direction.

"Come on." Odyssey says and resumes running.

Mulder follows.

"Why do you keep saying 'pink elephant'?" He manages to ask.

"Because it makes people think of a pink elephant." She explains. "There we are."

They pass through a door and into a huge chamber, as big as a hangar, where several smaller triangular crafts are docked. Odyssey howls herself into the first in line, jumping through the round hatch and into a seat.

"Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?" He asks as he takes the next seat.

"Why don't you ask me again." She says absentmindedly. "You never trusted me to drive, did you" she mumbles, and again he is filled with all sorts of soft emotions he is not sure how to handle.

"But how? Where did you learn to fly a spaceship?" He insists.

For a moment she stops everything she is doing to look at him. "I've been living up here for eighteen years, Mulder. It's amazing what you can pick up."

She leans back and closes her eyes. For a moment nothing happens. Than all of a sudden the ship starts to shake, coming to life. The hatch closes above their heads and lights come on inside the cabin. Odyssey smiles sideways at Mulder, and she doesn't even need to say 'I told you so'.

"But how did you - " he begins.

"I asked it to." She explains. "I told you: if you think right, it will respond."

The small craft rises higher in the air. Odyssey concentrates for a moment and a large door at the end of the hangar rises.

"It's the airlock." She explains, as speeding steps are heard entering the dock. "Come on, we have to go."

They are inside the airlock now, one large door closing behind them, the other about to open.

"What about Samantha and the kids?" He asks.

"There is another docking bay at the other side of the ship." Odyssey explains. "I bet they're out by now."

"Why go to a different docking bay?" He asks.

Odyssey shrugs. "It's where they keep the battleships." She says. "Now hang on to something or you'll be plastered to the ceiling. And…we're...off!"

They shoot through the open airlock and into the wide, empty darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When the X Files introduced the "smoking man got Scully pregnant" story in season 11 I was truly relieved (disgusted and somewhat violated, but relieved). I always thought that was the most logical explanation, ever since I read it in a hilarious crack-fic called "Unmarrid Mother" by Halrloprillalar circa 2001 (it's still online if you want to read it, and it really is hilarious). None of the other explanation made a fig of sense to me. This was written into my story in 2011, remember.  
> I don't think the smoking man is William's biological father, though. At least I really hope he isn't. Because, you know. Eww. And Scully's been through enough without knowing that her beloved son is the half-brother of the love of her life. And it IS rape, in my opinion. Though, you know – everything that Scully has been through in relation to her abduction was rape, one way or another. It all makes me feel alternately mad and sad. Scully deserves better.


	6. Odyssey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A strip of very bright light appears in the horizon, quickly rising above the ground to reveal a semi-circle. Clouds all over the sky are lit in a pink glow, the entire expanse of desert dyed in orange and gold. Odyssey's eyes are filled with tears, and she doesn't even mind when a single tear escapes and runs down her cheek. She sends a hand to wipe it off and Mulder grabs the hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written to "Daylight" by Coldplay, from their album "A Rush of Blood to the Head".

She can't help a shriek of joy from escaping her lips, and is only dimly aware of Mulder giving her a sideways glance. He is holding on to his seat for dear life, while she laughs, rejoicing in this sudden, unexpected freedom. The ship does a funny loop around itself in response. Mulder leans forward and throws up.

"Oh, oh, oh, Mulder..." Odyssey feels the sad face as her hand reaches out to him all by itself. "I'm so sorry, are you alright?"

"Y-yes." He manages to croak. "Mind…slowing down…a little?"

"Sure." She says and the ship slows down at once. In a minute it runs so quietly and peacefully it's like not moving at all. Odyssey's renegade hand is still on his cheek, caressing it softly. She draws it back, forcing it to behave itself. "Better?"

He nods, shaking. "I thought you were afraid to fly?"

"Was I?" She is surprised. She thinks about it for a minute, and chuckles. "Oh my god, you're right. I guess I forgot."

He raises his eyebrows at her. "How can you forget you're afraid to fly?!"

She shrugs. "I don't know, Mulder. I guess living in a spaceship for eighteen years makes you forget what solid ground feels like anyway."

He doesn't say anything. Earth appears before them, shining through the transparent metal. She recognizes North America by the map of lights; it is now night time. Behind her there is trouble, she can sense it; the Greys are chasing her. The ship becomes all tense. Odyssey asks it to raise the shields and arm itself, please.

"Uh, Sc-Odyssey?" Mulder says.

"I know. I saw them." She says. There are three of them. Smaller crafts than the one she is on, but much more heavily armed. She can't worry about that right now.

"And do you...have a plan?" he sounds tense. Poor Mulder.

"Trust me, Mulder, please." She says, and after a thought adds "You _do_ trust me, don't you?"

He does not respond for so long that she regrets she asked.

"Yes." He says eventually. "I...think I do."

She smiles at him, surprising herself: her cheeks almost forgot how.

"Good." She says.

"I think they're about to shoot." He says.

"We have shields." She replies. "And backup! Yes!"

Another ship appears besides them, large and metallic and heavily armored. Odyssey's heart leaps. She knows who is driving.

"How do you know it's on our side?" Mulder asks.

"There's only one of that kind." Odyssey says. "That's what Ann and the kids went for."

"Why?"

"You'll see."

She wishes she could contact them, make sure they are alright, but she can't: being telepathic, the Greys do not need communication systems, and their ships lack them. But the other ship seems to understand anyway: when the Greys start shooting it shoots back, shielding the small craft with Mulder and herself inside. Her heart is beating fast, anxious about her children. In the meantime her own ship starts preparing for battle.

"You'd better get a bag or something." She advises Mulder.

"From where?" He manages to ask before all hell breaks loose.

Fire hits the right side of the ship, crashing against the shields but still shakes them pretty bad. The ship creaks horribly. It shoots back, without satisfying results. Shields are down to seventy percent.

"Damn it." Odyssey whispers.

One of the chasing ships gets pretty close to them, sending red laser death beams in their direction. Odyssey directs all shield power to the left wing and manages to block the shot. She shoots the alien ship and it goes up in flames. To her left she hears Mulder throwing up again. It's a shame he has to miss this, it's like Star-Wars.

"Andrew, where are you?" She whispers. They're already inside Earth's atmosphere now, tearing the sky in the speed of sound. One of the alien ships burns down upon entering the atmosphere; they probably lost the shields before entering. Three are still chasing them, though. The grey ship sends death beams at them.

"Is there a GPS on this thing?" Mulder surprises her. She forgot he was there.

"I don't -" Pow - another alien ship is hit "- think so."

"So how do you know where we're going?" He inquires.

"The ship does." _And I wish we would get there already._

"Where?" He asks.

The grey ship suddenly accelerates and in a moment disappears from sight. For a second Odyssey feels a pang of panic, but then realizes that their attackers are gone. They are hovering behind them in a line, getting smaller by the millisecond.

"Why did they stop?" Mulder asks.

The ship creaks loudly, its metal shell screaming. It is now flying very low above the ground. Odyssey manages to slow it down and to pull Mulder down to a brace position before the very fabric of the ship tears down around them.

*

"Odyssey? Odyssey!"

She hears a voice calling her. It sounds anxious. Funny; he sounds just like someone she used to know. She just can't remember who at the moment. And who is caressing her face?

"Odyssey! Wake up!"

Wait, it's that guy. Her FBI partner. Mulder, that's it. That was his name.

"Scully!"

All of a sudden she remembers. Of course it's Mulder. Her eyelids flutter and she sees him looking down at her. His eyes are full of anxiety and pain. When he sees her looking he exhales in relief.

"Thank god. You okay?"

"'M fine." She mumbles, sitting up.

"Yes, of course you are." Mulder sounds sarcastic but truly relieved. "You hurt your forehead."

She sends a finger and touches blood. But it feels like a small cut, nothing to worry about. "You okay, Mulder?"

He nods. "It's lucky you pulled me down when you did. Our Spacecraft crashed."

"I know." She says. "I intended it to."

"Why?"

"They could track its whereabouts otherwise." She says. "Come on, help me up."

They both stand up on unstable legs, supporting each other. For the first time, she gets a look around. The scenery is hellish, with burning spacecraft bits strewn around a wide, flat desert, as far as the eye can see. The other spacecraft, the grey one, is nowhere to be seen.

"Well, captain," Mulder says, "Where the hell are we?"

"Somewhere in the vicinity of Roswell, New-Mexico." She says. "Hopefully."

She knows he is worried, but is hardly aware of him otherwise. Her senses are swamped. She feels the desert dirt, hears it crashing under the soles of her shoes. Feels the soft caress of the cold night breeze, takes a deep breath of fresh air. It's been so long since she breathed air that hadn't been recycled countless times before.

For a moment she forgets herself. She forgets what lies ahead, Ann and the kids and her mission; she forgets Mulder. She takes a few steps into the burning desert and spins around herself, arms spread wide to embrace it all.

When she comes to she sees Mulder looking at her sheepishly. He says nothing. She smiles at him, not caring about anything for a moment, letting herself be Dana one last time. He smiles back.

"Come on, Dana. We can't stay here all night. What's your plan?"

Odyssey points behind him, to a dark stretch of desert road, and a road sign saying it is three miles to Roswell.

"We walk."

He makes a generous gesture, letting her walk past him.

"As the lady says."

"Thank you."

They start walking along the road in companionable silence. All around them remnants of the spacecraft glow red, giving the eerie feeling of the end of the world.

*

"The Grey ones are the real telepaths, while the shape-shifters are not great at it. But they are much more resilient, that is why the Greys decided to hybrid with them. Their evolution, it put too much emphasis on the brain, you see. Their bodies are weak."

She is babbling and she knows it. But it's been so long since she talked to anyone who wasn't Ann or the kids. It's been so long since she talked to Mulder. They have been walking along the road to Roswell for a while now through the pitch black of night. Every once in a while they spot another remnant of the ship, but the main mass seems to be behind them.

"Wait, and why do they want to hybrid with us?" Mulder asks. "What's the benefit for them, being such superior beings?"

Odyssey waves a hand.

"They're not superior." She says. "They're just...very different."

"Different how?" He asks.

"Well, first of all, they breed via virus, so all interaction involving sex is completely, eh, alien to them."

"Ha ha."

"Yeah. And they read minds, so none of them is ever really alone. They're not exactly independent beings, in a sense."

"Alright, what else?"

"They are not very creative. They don't have art of any kind. They don't have hobbies, either."

"Other than torturing my sister."

"Yeah, other than that." She agrees. "And their bodies are weak. They're fragile. That's what they need from us: we're much closer to our origins than they are. And we're way more suited to Earth."

He gives a half smile. "Well, we _are_ the endemic species on this planet."

"Exactly."

The sky above them is getting lighter. Pitch black is now dark blue. The horizon, right in front of them, is light grey. Odyssey watches transfixed as stripes of glowing red and pink appear in the horizon. Her heart is actually pounding.

"Wait, but you said that the Greys and the Shape-Shifters interbred, right? Because until now I thought there was no clear distinction between them." Mulder says, pulling her attention back to the conversation.

"Sometimes… " she says absentmindedly, eyes still on the horizon, which is getting lighter by the second. "They are distinct. You're right, in the sense that you have many Greys that can actually shape-shift, and many Shape-Shifters who read minds and such. But there are, for lack of a better word, 'pure-breeds'." She adds quotation marks with her fingers.

"Pure-breeds?" He inquires.

"Beings that are either all Grey or all Shape-Shifter. They are thought the elite of each culture, actually. The Captain is one, for example." She says.

"Your captain is psychotic." Mulder exclaims.

"No, I think he's just...oh, my god, Mulder. Look."

With catching breath she points to the horizon. Mulder looks downwards at her and smiles.

"It's so beautiful."

A strip of very bright light appears in the horizon, quickly rising above the ground to reveal a semi-circle. Clouds all over the sky are lit in a pink glow, the entire expanse of desert dyed in orange and gold. Odyssey's eyes are filled with tears, and she doesn't even mind when a single tear escapes and runs down her cheek. She sends a hand to wipe it off and Mulder grabs the hand.

She raises her eyes to him, just for a moment, and sees in his eyes a mixture of sorrow and wonder and...love? With a small smile she turns back to watch the sunrise. She feels reborn, cleansed. Baptized by the air and the sun and Mulder's hand holding hers. For the first time in a long time she thinks there might be a God.

After the sun goes from semi-circle to orb and rises up from the earth, Mulder leaves her hand.

"We should get going." He says. "In a couple of hours it will be hotter than hell."

She nods and they carry on walking, silent this time.

*

They already see the dark expanse of Roswell in the horizon when they hear the helicopters. It is the first sign of human presence they encounter since reaching the planet, and Odyssey gets nervous.

Mulder turns around to spot the helicopters: one, two and three, approaching them fast.

"They're black." Odyssey says.

"We're in trouble." Mulder replies.

"Not necessarily."

He eyes her suspiciously. She feels silly just standing there waiting, but what use would running be? Mulder doesn't even look at the helicopters anymore. His eyes are back on Roswell, and there is such longing in them that her heart breaks.

The helicopters circle around them and eventually prepare to land; there is one on every side; nowhere to run.

"Why are you so calm?" Mulder asks.

"Am I?" She replies, surprised. Actually, she feels jitters in her stomach.

"Halt!" Someone orders on a speaker.

"Like we're going anywhere." Mulder whispers.

"Hands in the air!" The voice continues.

"We're unarmed!" Odyssey calls as she raises her hands.

The doors of all three helicopters open and soldiers jump out. Wait, not soldiers. Good.

"They're super soldiers." Mulder whispers.

I hoped they would be, she thinks to herself but says nothing.

The soldiers point guns at them, except one who seems to be in charge. He approaches Odyssey threateningly. She keeps her ground.

"Are you the one they call Odyssey?" The soldier asks.

"Yes." She replies. Her voice is as steady as ever, and she feels a pang of pride. All those years did not erase all of her FBI training.

"My orders are to kill you." The soldier says.

Odyssey meets his gaze, eye to eye.

"Will you?"

The soldier looks at her. He seems confused. So is Mulder, who gives her a funny look. Oh, well. She'll deal with that later.

"Well?" She asks.

The soldier lifts his arm to give the order. He does not seem to be able to complete the gesture. His lips twitch. The other soldiers move uncomfortably, and at that moment Odyssey knows she has won.

"I- I…Can't." The soldier says, as though in pain. "I can't!" He yells and holds his head in his hands. The other soldiers drop their guns and also hold their heads in their hands, swaying from side to side and moaning.

"Hey, you. Soldier!" Odyssey calls at the agonized commander.

He raises pained eyes to her.

"Are there any hatchlings in Roswell?" Odyssey asks.

"No." The soldier says. "But the bees are on their way."

"Then stop them!" She commands.

"I can't!" The soldier actually shrieks, cowering from her. "There are too many!"

"Stop whining and look at me!" She orders forcefully; and amazingly, he does. The other super soldiers stare intently as well. Mulder stands right behind her, she feels his warmth radiating through the air and the layers of clothes.

"Now listen very carefully." She says. "You will get back to Roswell and gather everybody. Make them shut their doors and windows. Protect them. No one is to be in the way of the bees, do you hear me?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The soldier jumps to his feet. To his cue his men gather up and climb into the helicopters. In a moment they are gone, wind roaring through the rotors. Odyssey notices Mulder, who gives her a questioning look.

"You think I should've asked for a ride?" She asks.

He shakes his head, seemingly speechless.

"We walk, then." Odyssey shrugs and resumes walking towards Roswell as if nothing happened. Mulder joins her, and for a while they are quiet.

"Err…"

"Yes, Mulder?"

"What exactly happened back there?" Mulder points vaguely to where the helicopters had been.

"It's hard to explain."

"Try me."

"Not right now. I will explain it. I will. Promise." Odyssey puts a reassuring hand on his arm and he shakes it off. She shrinks. It hurts her to see that look in his eyes, that hard, untrusting look. "Look, now is not the time. Let's go to your motel. We need check up on Dana."

"Can you help her?" Mulder asks.

"I don't know." Odyssey admits. "But we need to hurry."

She doesn't say anything more, but she can almost hear a roaring buzz approaching, a dark cloud moving to cover the sun.


	7. Mulder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mulder watches from the side-lines, fascinated. He was always impressed by this side of Scully, the no-nonsense do-what-I-tell-you-or-I'll-kill-you side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written to "Green Eyes" by Coldplay, from the Album A Rush of Blood to the Head.

The Super Soldiers must have been mistaken: by the time Odyssey and Mulder reach Roswell, the bees have already come and gone. Thousands of tiny bodies are strewn about the streets, coloring them yellow and black. The atmosphere is eerie, completely at odds with the warm, soft glow of the morning. The light falls on Odyssey's long hair, lighting it fiery auburn and red. Her eyes are almost blue in this light, and Mulder thinks of the Pacific Ocean. He doesn't tell her that, of course; he leads the way to the motel, which is on the other side of town.

"Be careful where you put your hands." Odyssey advises. "Some of them may still have their stings on."

"It's okay, I'm vaccinated." He reassures her. She does not respond.

For a while they walk quietly through the abandoned streets, passing blocks upon blocks of houses, picket fences and cars. Everything is very quiet. Mulder fears suddenly that it is the end of the world.

"Where is everyone?" Odyssey asks finally. Her voice sounds incredibly loud.

"I don't know." Mulder answers. "Either hiding or dead."

"Maybe the Soldiers got here on time." Odyssey suggests. She does not sound convinced, though.

A large sign catches Mulder's eye.

"Hey, Scully." He says, forgetting himself. "Look."

Odyssey reads the sign.

"Roswell's International UFO museum?" she asks.

"Wanna go?" Mulder suggests, and is rewarded with a half amused, half exasperated glare.

They are startled by the sound of a shot, followed by screams. Odyssey and Mulder exchange looks and start running. At the small town centre they finally see people, and for a moment Mulder wishes that he hasn't. The small troop of Soldiers is there, one of them holding a gun. Beneath his feet there is a woman, belly heavily bleeding. Around them are people, seemingly healthy, though some are presenting multiple, red bee-stings. Some are crying and others are shouting, but all are kept at bay by the guns of the Soldiers. Here and there are unconscious people, strewn on the sidewalk as if by a gale. No one is allowed to approach them, and hardly anyone tries.

"Stay back!" calls one of the Soldiers. "This is for your own protection."

Odyssey runs to the middle of the scene, crouches next to the lying woman.

"What have you done?" she looks up at the Soldier.

He remains quiet.

"Answer me!" commands the small woman, and the Soldier cringes.

"She was infected." he explains. "She had to die."

"But there must be some other way." Odyssey says. "You can't just shoot everybody."

"I must protect those who still have a chance." The Soldier says. "She was already too far gone."

Odyssey examines the body, which is semi-transparent. The half formed head of a future hatchling is inside, also shot; green blood trickles, mixing with the red. She looks more fascinated than repulsed, Mulder notices. Somehow he is not surprised.

"How long ago was she infected?" Odyssey now asks the soldiers.

"By the look of it I'd say about six hours." The Soldier says. "But she's from out of town. Her husband was trying to get her to the hospital."

"And what happened to him?" Mulder asks. Odyssey's comfortable interaction with the murderous Super Soldiers is making him uneasy, but his curiosity is stronger.

"The bees got him here. Crashed into a tree." The Soldier informs. "Now excuse me." He walks away, leaving woman and alien bleeding on the street. Odyssey takes off her large chequered shirt and covers both faces. Then she gets up and turns to Mulder, who tries not to stare at her white tank-top.

"Do you have more of that vaccine of yours?"

"Some." He admits. "But probably not enough to save every infected in town."

"Damn." Odyssey mutters. She looks down at the now covered monstrosity lying dead on the sidewalk. "They can't all end like this."

"Actually, I might have an idea." Mulder says.

*

The Roswell Regional Hospital is in havoc. Hundreds of infected are being rolled in and there is hardly anyone to process them into the system. However, all the medical staff seems to be unharmed. Odyssey points out that it's odd.

"Not really." Mulder says. "They were all vaccinated."

She stops dead on her tracks to look at him.

"How?" she inquires.

"We put the vaccine in flu shots. Medical teams get them every year." He explains.

"So that's why there are so many people uninfected!" Odyssey seems delighted. "That's genius!"

"Not my idea." Mulder shrugs. "But yeah, it worked out pretty well."

"Of course, it would have been better just to mix the thing in with the flu…" Odyssey says, thoughtful. "But still, under the circumstances it's the best idea you could have come up with."

Mulder squints. Through lowered eyelids he can almost pretend that she's Scully. On the other hand, her enthusiasm is refreshing, and completely her own; he remembers that enthusiasm from their first case together. How excited she was back then, how thrilled to unravel the mystery surrounding Bellefleur, Oregon. That was a long time ago.

"Will the flu shots help the infected?"

He starts, surprised by her voice. She has to repeat the question before he understands it.

"I don't know." He admits. "But we can give it a try."

"But how will we convince them?" Odyssey tilts her head in the direction of the ER.

"You're a medical doctor, aren't you?" He asks.

"But I don't have anything to prove it." She says. "No papers, no licence…"

Mulder gives her a look. It says 'right now, who's gonna ask for it?'

She turns from him instantly, shouting "someone get me half a milligram of Epinephrine and a flu shot!"

A young doctor, resident by the looks of it, gives her a questioning look. "A flu shot?" he asks.

"I'm a medical doctor." She tells him. "This might be the only way to save these people."

"These people are in anaphylactic shock." The doctor says.

"Really?" Odyssey is furious. "All of them?"

"Excuse me, ma'am. It's not every day that a town is attacked by a swarm of bees." Says the doctor and drifts away. Odyssey turns to Mulder.

"You don't happen to have her licence card in your wallet, do you?" she whispers. He shakes his head.

Odyssey sighs in exasperation and marches into a hallway. It takes her less than five minutes to reappear in a white robe, order a nurse to get her a flu shot and inject the nearest unconscious citizen. The effect is immediate: the man coughs up and opens his eyes.

"Wha…what's happening?" he whispers.

"You had a reaction to a bee sting." Odyssey tells him softly. "You are going to be fine."

At last she is spotted by the tired resident, who stares with wide eyes. It takes him a moment to process the scene: the man, previously unconscious, now sits shaking on the bed; Odyssey standing over him with a needle in her hand.

"I thought I told you…" the resident begins.

"I'm a medical doctor." Odyssey says again. "I just saved his life!"

The resident is about to protest, but she seems to have lost her patience. "Look, there is no time for this! These people are all in grave danger unless you do as I tell you! This is not anaphylactic shock!"

"But - " the doctor begins.

"Did anyone react to Epinephrine?" Odyssey asks.

"Well…" the resident says. "Not exactly. But the symptoms…"

"The hell with the symptoms!" Odyssey calls. "You're wasting time! You need to give all these people flu shots. NOW!"

He finally gives in and runs. Odyssey does not relax until she sees that he asks the nurse for more flu shots and gets the other doctors to administer them as well. Odyssey joins in effortlessly, as if she had not been out of practice for about two decades.

Mulder watches from the side-lines, fascinated. He was always impressed by this side of Scully, the no-nonsense do-what-I-tell-you-or-I'll-kill-you side. He watches her as she orders the other doctors around, gets them out of the nurses' way, making sure that no patient is forgotten.

He remembers, again, all the times he spent with her in hospitals, but especially that time, when she was returned from her abduction. How fragile her face looked under all that duct tape, almost hidden under hoses and tubes. Only her hair, fiery red, was heart-breaking in its vividness. He had wanted to find her so bad, but not like this.

Now he thinks that maybe that sick DNA was part of the cloning residue. That Scully was never meant to actually die that time. Meanwhile, he can't take his eyes off of Odyssey, even as she's running around the ER with a pack of sterile needles in one hand and a bottle of flu vaccine in the other. Only after two hours, when the river of infected turns into a trickle and Odyssey lifts her eyes and nods at him, does he remember that Scully is still lying in that motel room, trapped in enchanted sleep.

*

At Odyssey's advice, they get an IV bag and equipment from the hospital. Odyssey explains that Scully is probably dehydrated by now, and getting her body back to balance is crucial.

"But how do we wake her up?" He insists.

Odyssey gives him a sad look. "I don't know yet."

It is a cool mid-winter's day, and the sun is at the top of the sky. The streets are quiet, with the Soldiers, angry citizens and bodies all gone. Only the numerous dead bees are mute evidence to what happened here.

"You did good today." Mulder says finally.

Odyssey lifts her eyes to him with a small smile. "Thank you." She says. His heart contracts. He can't get used to the thought that there is more than one Scully.

"Actually, it felt really good to do that again. Play doctor, I mean." She says.

"Ohhhh, so you like to play doctor?" Mulder asks before he manages to stop himself.

She gives him a _look_ and he laughs.

"Really, I was impressed." He admits. "It's amazing how you still have that side in you, even after…"

They both fall silent.

Eventually Odyssey sighs. "Yeah…"

Finally Mulder stops walking. "Look, Sc-Odyssey…I…I'm sorry." He finally says.

Odyssey blushes a little. "For what?"

"For…for letting them get you. For failing to retrieve you. For…"

"Mulder, it's not your fault." Odyssey says. "You didn't even know I was still gone."

"But isn't that worse?" He asks, looking into her eyes.

She remains silent. For a while he thinks that he might kiss her, but then the moment is gone. She shrugs and resumes walking, lost in thought. Mulder sighs in pain and turns to follow her, just in time to hear her surprized 'ow' and catch her as she loses balance and falls to the ground.

*

"You're not vaccinated?" He whispers to the pale, heavily breathing woman in his arms. She shakes her head weakly, breath wheezing through her mouth. "I never thought…" She coughs a little and draws another shaky breath.

"No need…up…in a spaceship…Never thought…I'd get…out…"

Her eyes close.

Mulder shakes her violently.

"No!" he calls. "Don't close your eyes. Stay up. Stay up!"

She opens her eyes, moving them across his face over and over again. She does not speak anymore.

"That's right." He whispers. "Stay with me. Look at me, Scully. Look at me. I'm gonna get you better, okay? Trust me."

Her reply is so soft that he is not sure he heard it: "You said…trust…no…"

She trails off.

"Trust me." He says again, moving as fast as his feet would get him to the motel room across town.


	8. Odyssey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She is hardly awake by now. Her throat is clogged, swollen. She hears only a part of the conversation behind the racket of her wheezy breaths. She is fighting the pull of unconsciousness, thinking that she can't leave Mulder now, not like this; she did not bring him back from the tropic and the arctic and outer space just to abandon him on a street in Roswell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written to "Warning Sign" by Coldplay, from their album A Rush of Blood to the Head. Incidentally, though this album will forever remind me of Mulder and Scully (that's what happens when you write a fic to an album), this song reminds me of them most of all. I'm not sure why. It helps that it's a beautiful song.

So this is what it feels like to be dying. Funny, it feels more like allergy than anything else. She's battling with the pull of a dark, deep well, of sweet unconsciousness. She's tired. As she slowly sinks deeper and deeper, there is one beacon on which she hangs. The last rope: Mulder face.

He looks old and tired, his eyes dark with anxiety.

"Stay with me, Dana." He says.

She shakes her head. Dana is somebody else now.

He nods once, softly moves her hair away from her face and picks her up like a newlywed.

_I hate it when I have to rely on some big, strong man, she thinks. I hate it when I have to rely on anyone. Anyone. But not Mulder. I can rely on him. Can't I?_

_These are not thoughts I should be having_ , she thinks.

_I wonder if I'm going to die. Then she will truly be me. There will only be one of me, at any rate. I think, anyway. Imagine there are tiny Danas slaving away in the bee farms. Little redhead girls collecting poisoned honey_. The thought is unbearable. _Focus on Mulder's face_. That's certain. That's stable. _I hope that the kids are okay_.

*

She somehow manages not to lose consciousness. She remains very still, but her eyes are open and are focused on Mulder. He carries her, half walking, half running. It bothers her that she can't see his eyes from this angle.

If she had the strength she would lift her head to bury her face in his t-shirt clad torso. Even now, his smell overwhelms her. She suddenly realizes just how much she missed him. Over those years, up there, she focused more on her longing for her family, sometimes her friends, but she never let herself dwell on Mulder. Not after she first saw his images with that _thing_.

But sometimes she had no choice.

She remembers a night, the last night of the last millennium. She didn't even know what date it was, not at first. It had started as a terrible evening. Emily had a massive tantrum over going to bed. She wouldn't let Odyssey touch her, screaming with all her five-year-old wrath.

"I don't want you!" she yelled. "I want my _real_ mommy!"

"I am your real mother." Odyssey said, and Emily was off again.

Eventually she calmed down. Odyssey doesn't remember how, but by the time Ann burst in she was lying on the couch, holding the sleeping child in her arms, happy for the first time in a very long time. Emily was never a very cuddly child, so Odyssey cherished every moment she got. When Ann burst in Odyssey put a finger to her lips.

"She's sleeping." She mouthed, and Ann nodded. Her eyes were glowing.

"Come by later, okay?" Ann requested and Odyssey nodded.

But she waited about fifteen minutes more, cherishing her rare moment of motherly bliss, holding her daughter and breathing the child's sweet smell. Eventually she did put Emily to bed in the other room and sneaked quietly out of her quarters.

She doesn't remember much of her conversation with Ann. The resourceful woman somehow got a hold of a bottle of wine ("I've been saving it for five years!") and they both celebrated the coming of the new millennium (Ann: "the age of silver clothes and flying cars!") by trying the best they could to get drunk.

"We really shouldn't do that." Odyssey said. "Imagine if they're reading our minds right now!"

"Trust me, they're not." Said Ann, taking another swig. "And besides, there's nothing interesting in a drunken girl's head."

At that point Odyssey noticed them, standing together in some hospital waiting room, looking at a television screen. Many other images were flickering on the intelligence bay screens (Ann has been monitoring new-year's eve parties all around the country, apparently) but Odyssey couldn't take her eyes off of Mulder and Scully.

So she watched them as they smiled at each other. And she watched them kiss. And smile at each other again.

Ann had missed it. She was babbling away in drunken joy. Odyssey was suddenly dead sober. She was happy Ann cannot see her face, not right now. It was all she could do to keep her fists from clenching.

She never thought of Mulder that way, has she? Has she?!

And a small voice inside her head whispered 'of course you have. You were just being a coward, as usual.' Like that time, in the car, with the iced-tea. Not that Dana was much braver: when Mulder first told her that he loved her, her response was 'oh, brother' (Incidentally, when Ann told Odyssey about it she said the exact same thing).

But it was different, seeing them kiss. Even from this angle she saw the look on his face. She muttered an excuse to Ann and left, squeezing in with Emily in the child's small bed; she didn't want to be alone right then.

*

Mulder smells of Mulder, and of sweat. The day is warm - too warm for late December, really, but she heard that there was global warming going on. His quick paces rock her, back and forth, and she momentarily closes her eyes, suddenly longing to give in to sleep.

"Halt!" someone calls.

"Oh, no." Mulder whispers.

"Stop right there!" The Super Soldier sounds closer now, and Mulder breaks into a run.

"What are you doing?" She manages to say, teeth chattering. She can hardly breathe.

"You're infected." Mulder says. "He'll kill you!"

"Stop right there!" The Soldier calls, and Mulder ducks and avoids a shot. For one horrifying moment he stumbles, but then gets back on his feet and keeps running. Odyssey longs to have a gun.

Another shot breaks her line of thought.

Mulder turns into an alley, hiding himself and Odyssey behind a large dumpster. Trying to catch his breath, he asks her "Why didn't he kill me? He was aiming way too high."

Odyssey can hardly speak. She should not even be awake, not after so much time, but somehow she is.

"Re…verse…" she manages to croak, "I…reverse…genetic…"

He doesn't understand.

"My…voice…" Odyssey whispers. "They…listen…to me."

That he understands.

"They are programmed to obey your voice?" He asks, seemingly impressed. "How did you - "

Another shot scares them out of hiding. Mulder props Odyssey across his shoulders and makes a run for it. Odyssey now sees his legs, barefoot; his knees and his feet. Her head bobs painfully up and down. Mulder breaks out of the alley and stops dead. Three massive guns are pointed at them, held by three Super Soldiers.

*

She is hardly awake by now. Her throat is clogged, swollen. She hears only a part of the conversation behind the racket of her wheezy breaths. She is fighting the pull of unconsciousness, thinking that she can't leave Mulder now, not like this; she did not bring him back from the tropic and the arctic and outer space just to abandon him on a street in Roswell.

From what she can hear, the soldiers are pleading Mulder to leave her.

"Get away." One of them, a female, says. "We do not want to kill you, but we will if we must."

"You don't have to kill anyone." Mulder says. "I'm not leaving her."

"She's infected." The soldier says. "In a few hours she will die anyway. And the thing that'll burst out of her will eat you alive."

"You should've just told me you are filming a sequel to 'Alien'." Mulder says, and gets no laughs. Odyssey closes her eyes at the sound of the safety being pulled.

"Stop" Odyssey tries to say, but it comes out as a whisper. She takes a deep breath and tries again: "Stop."

It comes out a bit squeaky, but this time they hear her. The soldiers look up, surprised. The one holding the gun looks at her suddenly shaking hand.

"Don't shoot." Odyssey says between struggling breaths.

The soldier looks at Odyssey, then at her gun, then at Mulder.

"Let him go!" Odyssey commands and the soldiers take a step backwards. It is funny - their legs seem to move despite the specific orders of their brains. They let Mulder pass between them, looking at Odyssey in awe.

"Wait, Mulder." Odyssey whispers, and aloud she says "Guns. Now."

The soldiers reluctantly hand their guns over to Mulder. He takes one, gives one to Odyssey to hold with a limp hand, and sticks one in his belt. The soldiers watch, transfixed. Odyssey's breaths become raspy, more painful than before. My throat is closing, she thinks. I need to act quickly.

"Now go." She orders with her last good breath, and the soldiers turn around as one and walk away. They do not hesitate or look back. They just walk, as one entity, away from the square.

Mulder does not waste time watching them. He half walks half runs the remaining distance to the motel, but by the time he gets there Odyssey is unconscious.

*

Suddenly she is wide awake and coughing. Breath is bursting back into her lungs and it is surprisingly painful. She breathes in gulps of air nonetheless, waiting a moment before opening her eyes. She is on a bumpy bed, in a dimly lit room. She hears her own raspy breaths and feels Mulder close.

"Scully?" He asks. "Are you awake?"

Odyssey opens her eyes. Mulder is beside her, very close, and his face lights up when she looks at him. His hand caresses her cheek, soft and warm. For a moment she closes her eyes again, melting into it, drawing comfort from his soft touch.

And hears soft, quiet breaths, right behind her. There is someone else in here, another silent presence. She does not turn around. Her eyes hang for a moment on Mulder, on that shining emotion she sees in his eyes. It is something she understands, more clear than any words that could ever be said. It has always been like this with him.

Eventually he tears away from her stare, averting his eyes. She holds out a hand to him and he squeezes it, but only momentarily, as if obligated.

"Help me up." She asks.

He helps her pull into a seating position, propping a pillow behind her back. She notices the tiny puncture on her right arm.

"Thank you." She says, and he smiles.

"Of course."

For a moment they are both quiet. She finally hazards a look at the sleeping woman besides her. The experience is quite hard to describe: not at all like looking in the mirror. The unconscious woman is as similar to Odyssey as a twin would be, but not completely identical. Her hair, for one, is strawberry blond. Apparently she uses a lighter dye. Her fingernails are meticulously done; Odyssey hadn't had a manicure in years. She is deeply beautiful, even in sleep. Odyssey does not believe herself this beautiful. She is much too pale, for one.

"Still asleep, I see." Odyssey manages to say, fighting hard to hide the resentment in her voice. But some of it must have filtered through, because Mulder gives her a pained look and says "None of this is her fault, you know."

Odyssey avoids his eyes.

"I know."

She gets out of bed, barely, and he rushes to catch her when her knees cave in.

"Easy, Scully, easy." He says. "You're still recuperating".

Odyssey nods.

"What were you looking for anyway?" Mulder asks.

"The I.V." She explains. "She'd be dehydrated. We need to put some fluids in her before we think what else to do."

Mulder passes her the bag and needle and she fixes it, seeing for a moment just a patient and not this eerily pretty version of herself.

"She's very thin." Odyssey remarks.

"I know." Mulder says. "It's some sort of eating disorder. It's been like that ever since she was abdu…" he fades away.

"Interesting." She says, and lifts her eyes to meet his. "It's not genetic, I assure you."

"Yes, I can see that." He says, and she can't help being insulted.

"Thank you." She says sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Meanwhile she attaches the I.V. and waits for something more to happen.

Nothing does.

Dana remains as still as she was two minutes ago. Even her cheeks are hollow and colourless. Odyssey turns her over to look at the back of her neck. The scar there is tiny, almost unnoticeable, if you don't know where to look. Under the skin odyssey feels the hard dot of the chip, controlling this creature, forcing it to sleep.

"What if we remove it?" Mulder asks.

"Then she'll die." Odyssey replies. "It'll be cancer all over again. And this time you won't have a replacement chip to save her."

Mulder is stunned. "You know about that?"

Odyssey eyes him momentarily. "I told you, your sister has been watching you guys for years. You're her soap opera replacement. She keeps me updated." She looks back at Dana, removes a strand of hair with a hesitant hand. "Whether I like it or not." she adds quietly.

Mulder looks thoughtful for a moment. "What else are you updated on?"

"You mean, about your life?" Odyssey asks. "I heard you're quite the writer now. Finally took Dana's advice and put your experiences in a book?"

Mulder sniggers. "Yeah. Luckily for me no one took it seriously. No one sane, anyway. You should see my fan mail."

"Pass." She says. "Ann got a copy of it somehow, you know. That's quite the credential: rewriting Nostradamus."

"Did you bother to read it?" Mulder asks with a glint in his eye.

"I did. I _liked_ it. It's just that in most of my work, ancient prophets don't seem to apply."

For a moment they are in a dusty basement office, full of clutter and UFO photos. They smile at each other.

Her eyes wander back to the sleeping Dana. She now notices the gold necklace around the woman's neck and her heart swells.

"That's mine." She says, touching the cold metal with a fingertip. "I got it from my mom for my fifteenth birthday."

"Yes, your mother told me once." Mulder agrees. "But Scully said that it was a Christmas present."

"It's a glitch in the program." Odyssey explains. "It's very hard to transfer a complete set of memories to a clone, so they make up for the missing parts themselves. I did get a necklace for Christmas once, but it was a small silver heart. I lost it the winter before I got this one." She smiles now. "Melissa replaced hers with a crystal one when she was sixteen. She was always into spiritual energies."

Odyssey takes the necklace off Dana's neck and fastens it around her own. It is cool against her skin, familiar and comforting. In half a second it feels as if it had always been there.

Mulder looks pained, but she doesn't ask why.

"I think I know how to help your Dana." She says instead. "But we need the kids to come back with the spaceship."


	9. Mulder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The man's reply is swallowed by a whisper. It is not a noise, exactly, more of a vibration. The earth below their feet shrieks as a white pillar of death comes shooting from the sky, turning everything in its wake into flame. The people scatter around, screaming, like ants thrown into water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written to the song "A Whisper", by Coldplay, from the album A Rush of Blood to the Head.

When the ship finally arrives, it tears the sky. Mulder feels it more than hears it, since it hardly makes a sound. It's more of a heavy presence, of the air being suddenly sucked out of his lungs. He turns around in time to see it coming, so fast that it's almost as if it just materialized over the parking lot.

"Scully!" He calls, without turning his head.

Odyssey, who has been treating or vaccinating the other motel guests, appears at the door, shading her eyes with her hand.

"About time!" She exclaims.

Some of the motel guests are outside, gaping at the spacecraft. Mulder ignores them. An opening appears and three figures emerge. They seem like three completely normal human beings, only very pale and blinking too much in the bright sunlight.

Nobody moves. Suddenly Samantha calls "Hey big brother!" and waves at Mulder.

"Your sister's an alien?" the guest standing closest to Mulder asks.

"It's a long story." Mulder replies wryly.

Odyssey runs to her children. After she hugs and kisses both and makes sure they are alright, she asks "did you get it?"

"Yes, a few truck load." Andrew says.

"We had to steal the truck." Emily adds. "Ann drove."

"I hope they're insured." Odyssey retorts.

"Ha ha." Samantha replies. "I did what _you_ asked me to, Odd. You could've done it yourself."

"I'm sorry, I've been busy saving people's lives." Odyssey says, more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Emily looks uncomfortable.

"I'm still not sure we should -"

"Pink elephant!" Odyssey calls.

"You know, mom, I think by now they can pin-point you by the mass of telepathic pink elephants." Andrew says.

"Yes." Samantha agrees. "It's a whole herd in here. So do you want us to move on or what?"

"Um, not yet." Odyssey says, glancing at Mulder. "There's something I need to do first."

*

Samantha and the kids remain outside as Mulder carries Scully into the spaceship. She is limp in his arms, somewhat lighter than Odyssey was a few hours ago. He figures it's because she hasn't eaten in a few days. Inside the ship there's a strong smell of earth. The interior is full of large rocks, still steaming from the blast that forced them out.

"What's that about?" Mulder asks and Odyssey shrugs.

"In there." She leads him into a large room, full of menacing looking equipment. There are chairs in there he knows too well, packed with instruments, and a blank, shiny table.

"Over here." Odyssey says, and to Mulder's relief gestures at the table.

"What are you going to do?" He asks as she props all sorts of strange equipment over the sleeping Scully. Odyssey seems careful not to touch her, asking Mulder to change her position.

"I am going to try to override the control mechanism." Odyssey explains as she arranges the instruments.

"Control mechanism?" Mulder asks

"I usually just use a reversing mechanism." Odyssey says. "But as we don't want Dana here to be awake all the time, I'm just gonna try and override the chip."

"Can you do that?" he asks.

She looks up at him. "Theoretically."

"Theoretically?!"

"Look, I've never done it before." She admits. "But it's the best chance she's got."

He nods, once. She goes back to handling the instruments, and after that sits at an alien looking monitor and starts programming. She punctures Scully's finger, draws a drop of blood and puts it in one of the machines.

"What's that for?" Mulder is suspicious.

Odyssey gives him a look. "I need a drop of her blood in order to synthesize the reverse."

"Can't you just take yours?"

She looks like she's about to murder him. "We're not really identical, Mulder. Dana's part alien. I'm all human."

Mulder remains speechless.

"So is this gene therapy?" He asks after a while. "Won't it take too long?"

Odyssey shakes her head. "Not too long. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to concentrate."

He leaves her in the room, leaning over Scully, trying to put out of his head the haunted look in her eyes.

*

Someone has brought a small wireless television outside and some people are huddled around it. A tall, dark woman says that the death toll in India is up to forty million. A heated conversation is on-going as to what are these strange, lethal creatures, and where did they come from. A fat man says that it's a Chinese plot to take over the world. The tall dark woman reminds him that there are more casualties in rural China than there are anywhere in the world. A fierce looking man says that it is all plotted by the US government. And of course, someone blames the Radical Islam, another one blames the Jews. No one says anything about aliens, though.

Andrew and Emily are standing a few yards away, trying without success to look like bored teenagers. Some of the other motel guests stare at them. One of them asks Emily where she's from.

"San Diego." She replies.

"And you?" he asks Andrew.

"Outer space." The boy says matter-of-factly.

The man's reply is swallowed by a whisper. It is not a noise, exactly, more of a vibration. The earth below their feet shrieks as a white pillar of death comes shooting from the sky, turning everything in its wake into flame. The people scatter around, screaming, like ants thrown into water. Samantha drags Mulder closer to the ship, into the soothing flicker of the shield; when the beam hits the shield it spreads around it like lava wallpaper, unable to penetrate.

"Quick!" Mulder calls after the motel guests. "In here!"

The kids are already inside the scope of the shield, eyes wide with fear. Emily grabs Andrew and he hides in her embrace. Another death ray shoots across the parking lot, and within seconds the motel disintegrates to dust. Only a handful of survivors managed to make it to the shelter of the ship. The young fierce man survived; the fat man didn't. Everyone is crying.

"What is that!?" Mulder asks Samantha.

"Probably plan B." she replies.

Mulder feels his stomach knot. "There's a plan B?"

Samantha eyes him with something akin to pity. "Of course there is. You didn't think that they would only think of one way to take over the planet, did you?"

"Don't make me answer that."

Samantha looks back up, into the blanket of molten fire surrounding the shield. "The last I know of the situation the virus was spreading successfully in Africa, East-Asia and eastern Europe. On the other hand, they had virtually no success in the Americas, Western Europe and Australia."

"The countries that were more heavily vaccinated for the flu." Mulder says.

Samantha looks impressed. "So that's how you did it?"

"I thought you knew everything." Mulder replies.

Samantha shakes her head. "No, but I'm really good at faking it."

Another beam appears in the distance, undoubtedly turning Roswell town centre into a living hell. Mulder tries not to imagine the screams; the smell of burning flesh and rubber.

"Who could do that?" The tall woman asks.

"I told you it was the government." The fierce man spits on the ground.

The Mulder siblings exchange glances. Samantha shrugs. 'What's the point?' Her eyes say. Mulder closes his. Another beam hits the shield. With each hit the shield shakes, but holds fast.

"Why are they doing it like this?" Mulder asks. "Why don't they come themselves?"

"They can't, you moron." Emily suddenly snaps. "This whole area is shit-load full of Magnetite. Didn't you ask yourself why the ship you arrived in exploded?"

"Shut up, Emily." Andrew spits.

"But does that mean that they can go everywhere else?" Mulder asks.

"They probably are." Samantha says.

"But the super-soldiers - " Mulder begins.

"I know, Odd altered their behaviour." Samantha interjects. "It's amazing, right?"

"So they'll be on our side." Mulder says.

"There's always the chance that the Greys will just reverse their orders." Samantha replies. "So I'd still avoid them if I were you."

Mulder nods. _Reverse the orders_ , he thinks. It's almost too simple. _I wonder why Odyssey never thought of that?_

The next moment Odyssey is beside him. She is sweating in the heat of the fire beam, her cheeks red, her chest heaving. He is suddenly very aware of the few extra pounds she has over Scully: her breasts are bigger. He is glad that in this heat she cannot know he is blushing.

"Ann." She calls, trying to get over the racket. "Come inside, I need you."

"What for?" Samantha asks.

"Some visual intelligence." Odyssey calls.

Mulder follows them. "Is something wrong? Is Scully alright?"

"She's fine, Mulder." Odyssey replies curtly. "She's already beginning to stir."

Mulder nods. Once inside the ship, the noise dies abruptly.

"What's going on?" Samantha asks.

"Come on, over here." Odyssey leads them around the huge pile of desert rocks and into a dark hallway. At the other side is a small room, packed with monitors, not unlike the intelligence bay up at the mother ship.

"That's great!" Samantha calls. She turns to look at the monitors and they burst to life, one by one. In a moment the room is awash with the ghostly green light of the screens. They show images from around the world: in India, a hatchling devours a little girl while her mother lies dead on the ground; in Paris, two super soldiers kill a hatchling that has broken into a butcher's shop; in China, an entire village of devoured bodies is spread on the ground, while hungry hatchlings fight each other over a dead cow; in Washington D.C., a death ray scorches the Washington monument.

"You think they got the FBI?" Mulder asks Odyssey. She gives him _a look_.

"Ann, I need you to do me a favour." Odyssey asks Samantha.

"Sure, Odd. What is it?"

"Find me the mother of mother ships." Odyssey requests.

Samantha grows pale. "You know I can't do that, Odd."

"Sure you can." Odyssey asks. "It all depends on it."

Samantha does not reply. She shakes her head slowly, like an automaton.

"I need you to do this." Odyssey says. "It's the last thing I'll ever ask of you."

"That's exactly the problem." Samantha whispers. Her head is bowed.

Mulder looks at the images from all over the world: England, Russia, Kenya, Uruguay. Rural nowheres appear there in much the same intensity as big cities.

"Can you see anything on this thing?" he asks Samantha.

"Pretty much." Samantha replies, relieved to be distracted from her discussion with Odyssey.

"Show me William." Mulder tells the ship. The image on one of the screens quickly changes to corn field scenery. In the distance, there are a few wooden houses. Two children are walking through the field, buckets in hand. Dozens of bees hum around them but they don't seem to care. The girl has long, black hair, tied into pigtails. The boy has short, brown hair, and fair skin.

Both Odyssey and Samantha hold their breaths.

"Show me his face." Mulder asks again, and the face of the boy appears in close-up. He has Mulder's brown hair and his lips, but Scully's big blue eyes. The girl next to him, another Samantha, smiles at him wordlessly. The picture is peaceful, quiet. There are no hatchlings or death rays in sight. In fact, there is nothing in sight altogether.

Odyssey turns to Samantha, now furious.

"You knew where he was?!" she asks. "All this time, you knew?"

Samantha looks shaken. "I couldn't…made a promise…he wasn't yours…"

"They made Scully give him away, didn't they?" Mulder asks quietly. "Ordered her. Through the chip."

"Yes." Samantha confirms. "Look, Odd, I'm sorry, it was either him or Andrew, you know that, she wasn't _meant_ to keep him, he was always meant for the farms…"

"Traitor!" Odyssey yells. "Get out of here, traitor!"

"I won't!" Samantha yells back. "And I won't take a part in your petty revenge plan, either!"

"Revenge?! You think this is about revenge?" Odyssey shrieks.

"Yes!" Samantha shrieks back. "You think that they took everything from you, but they gave you a home, they gave you a family! I won't let you kill everyone I love!"

Mulder's head is spinning.

"They took away everything that was mine." Odyssey says, much more quietly. "They took away my identity and my name. They took away everything that I was. And they did the same to you."

"They did not!" Samantha yells. "They love me!"

"They kill you every chance they get." Odyssey says quietly. "They have a whole room for you in the cloning section, just so they can abuse you and kill you."

Samantha breaks down, sobbing. "They do it because they don't want to hurt me." She sobs. "They will never hurt me."

Odyssey kneels down and looks Samantha in the eye. "Listen to me, Samantha." She says. "They took you away from your family. They used you for experiments. They are now trying to kill everything of this planet and claim it as their own. And when they get what they want, they will kill you as well. Do you understand? We have no choice! You need to show me the mother of mother ships!"

Samantha breaks down, sobbing terribly. "I hate you." She whispers.

"Luckily you won't have to stand me for much longer." Odyssey replies.

Soft footsteps are heard from the opening and a small, white figure enters the room. She is barefoot and her hair is red and wild. Odyssey, kneeling with her back to the door, freezes.

"Mulder?" The white figure asks. "What the hell is this? What's going on?"

Samantha stares at her, eyes wide.

"Scully." Mulder whispers, his knees nearly buckling. "You shouldn't be up here, you should be in bed."

"That wasn't a bed, Mulder, it's a god damned autopsy table."

Mulder's head is spinning, drunk at the sight of her. He throws his arms around her, pulling her close.

"What are you doing?" She asks from somewhere between his arms.

He kisses her temple. "I missed you." He murmurs.

Odyssey gives Samantha a murderous look. He feels it more than sees it, even now, with Scully in his arms. Samantha sighs and closes her eyes.

A single image suddenly fills all the monitors in the room. It takes Mulder a moment to realize what he is seeing: in fact there are many small images, portions of something large and menacing.

"What is that?" Scully asks, peeking out from between his arms.

"A very big spaceship." Mulder says in awe.

"The biggest." Samantha says. "The mother of all spaceships."

"Now show me how to get to it." Odyssey requests. Scully's forehead wrinkles.

A large star map appears, filling the screens on the left side of the room. Odyssey memorizes it, apparently knowing what she is seeing.

Scully's breath ceases momentarily as the ship rocks again with another death ray. The monitors fill again with a world of horrible images.

"What…?" Scully whispers, incredulous.

"You've been asleep for two days." Mulder says matter of explanation. By the look on her face he realizes that much more explaining will be required later.

"You need to leave." Odyssey orders, still with her back to Scully.

"But the kids -" Samantha says.

Odyssey unfastens the small gold cross off her neck, and Scully's hand shoots to her own bare throat. She gives Mulder a terrified look.

Odyssey hands Samantha the necklace. "Give this to Emily." She says.

Scully's hand freezes on her neck.

"Emily?" she asks.

Nobody answers. Nobody moves.

Scully's eyes are fixed on Odyssey.

"Turn around." She asks quietly.

Odyssey does. Scully's eyes widen, her jaw nearly drops. For a long while the two women stare at each other.

"Are you my clone?" Scully asks.

Odyssey shakes her head.

"A shape-shifter?" Scully asks, her voice shaking.

Odyssey shakes her head again.

"Then who are you?" Scully demands.

Odyssey smiles a sad little smile, the kind that always ripped Mulder's heart out and broke it into tiny little pieces. She approaches Scully, puts a hand on her cheek, caressing it.

"You are me." She says softly.

And then she slaps Scully, hard.

"I'm sorry, Dana," She says, "but I wanted to do that for a very long time."


	10. Odyssey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Was it worth it? She asks herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written to A Rush of Blood to the Head, by Coldplay, from the album by the same name. Brace for impact, it's a hard one.

The ship shakes again as another death ray hits at the shield. The very walls creak momentarily, but it holds. Odyssey knows she doesn't have much time.

Dana's eyes are wide open, her small hand resting against her cheek. She is breathing heavily. Odyssey looks at Mulder, who shakes his head at her.

"Come on, Odd, it's not her fault." Ann finally breaks the silence.

"I know." Odyssey says. "So what?"

"Are you okay?" Mulder asks Dana.

"I'm fine." She replies, giving him the fraction of a look. He nods.

Ann sniggers.

"What did you mean by that?" Dana asks Odyssey finally. "What did you mean, I am you?"

Odyssey feels a mild annoyance creeping up her legs and knees, making its way up her body. For some reason, now that she's face to face with _it_ , she finds herself paralysed. She wants to tell Dana, wants to punish her for everything she has done and everything that she is. But she doesn't. It dawns on her that Dana, being who she is, will never believe her. She'll demand proof, evidence; and Odyssey has more pressing things to worry about. She shrugs.

Ann gives her a surprised look.

"You alright, Odd?" She asks.

Dana suddenly shifts her attention.

"Aren't you Samantha?" she asks.

Ann blushes. "Yes." She replies.

"You're dead." Dana points out.

"I know." Ann snorts. "Crazy, right?"

"Yeah." Dana sighs. She looks back at Mulder. "What's going on?"

"It's a long story." Mulder says.

"You better start, then." Dana says.

Mulder shakes his head, speechless.

"Let me give you the initials." Odyssey says. Dana shifts her gaze to her, and suddenly Odyssey feels very aware of herself. She wonders if she makes people feel like that, as well. "Forty-eight hours ago, on invasion day, you pointed a gun to Mulder's head and gave him away to some super soldiers."

Dana looks puzzled. "Why would I do that?"

"They made you." Odyssey lays a hand on the back of her neck. "Through this."

Dana almost flinches, but holds herself. Impressive, Odyssey thinks despite herself. The mild annoyance now reached her chest, and is seething.

"Go on." Dana says.

"He was transported up to a mother ship, where he met me." Odyssey continues.

"In a spaceship." Dana says flatly, rolling her eyes. "Right."

Odyssey's eyes narrow. "Where do you think you're standing right now?" she hisses.

Dana grows pale.

Now Odyssey rolls her eyes.

"We escaped together, with Samantha and the kids." Mulder tells Dana.

"What kids?" Dana asks absentmindedly.

"My kids." Odyssey says, almost too strongly.

Dana grows pale. "Emily?" she whispers.

"Yes." Odyssey confirms.

" _My_ Emily?" Dana asks.

"Technically she's mine." Odyssey replies.

"And William?" Dana whispers, even paler now.

Odyssey shakes her head. "No. Andrew."

"He's not William?" Dana is confused.

"No." Odyssey shakes her head again.

"William is in Canada, Scully." Mulder interjects. "In one of those bee farms. I saw him."

"You saw him?" Dana is surprised. "How?"

Odyssey turns to show him to her, ready to ask the ship, as her eyes fall on the monitors filled with the fragments of the mother of mother ships. The ship suddenly rocks violently, the shields creaking loudly this time. Odyssey turns around and says wildly "I need you all to get out."

"Why?" Mulder asks.

"No…" Ann mouths.

The ship rocks wildly again and they all stumble.

"NOW!" Odyssey calls, almost pushing them out. "Not you." She tells Dana, holding her arm. "I need to talk to you."

*

"I need you to listen, this is important." Odyssey tells the shocked Dana. "Don't say anything, there isn't much time."

Dana nods, once.

"Good." Odyssey says.

Dana frowns.

"What are you about to do?" She asks.

"I won't tell you." Odyssey says. "They won't read my mind but they will read yours, what with that damn thing in your neck."

Dana grows pale.

Odyssey starts talking very fast, all the while leading Dana slowly towards the exit.

"Listen. Emily is seventeen, so she thinks she is independent. But she will need you, even if she won't admit it. And she probably won't, she's just like me. Don't let her fool you into thinking she doesn't need you. And Andrew...he will resent you. Don't give up on him. And don't fear his tendency to read you, he does that to everyone. He's a lot like Mulder."

Dana looks as if she's desperately trying to take it all in.

"Samantha…She's 49 but she acts like a 22 year old. She spent too many years with the aliens. She worships you, by the way. She thinks you are the most amazing person that ever lived. Take care of her."

They are almost at the exit now. Before stepping out, Dana stops Odyssey.

"What was that she called you? Odd?" She asks softly.

"It's short for Odyssey." Odyssey explains.

"Why Odyssey?" Dana asks.

"Because I always hoped to go home one day." Odyssey hisses, that mild annoyance suddenly bursting into a boiling rage. "Now leave!"

She pushes Dana out of the ship as she asks the ship to rise into the air. Dana falls down, her eyes wild, looking up at Odyssey. The ship is really rising now, slowly. Odyssey gives one last look to her children, her loved ones, and herself.

"Mom!" Emily screams, running after the ship. "No! Mom!!!"

"Mom!" Andrew calls, waving her to come down.

"Scully!!!" Mulder shouts, cupping his hands around his mouth.

Ann just stands there, her face wet with tears. Dana puts a hand on her arm, as if to reassure her.

Soon they are all too small to be seen. Odyssey looks away at the ashes of Roswell, the craters where there were once wide expanses of desert. She looks up at the sky until there is no sky, and hides inside the ship just as the atmosphere becomes too thin to breath. Her heart is beating very fast.

On some of the monitors she sees Earth, parts of it scorched to bits. People are running around like beetles, small and helpless. Super-soldiers help the people and kill off the hatchlings, where they can. In Canada, William is oblivious to all of it. He is smiling at his Samantha, silent. He probably doesn't speak, she suddenly realizes, and again is almost paralyzed with rage.

She looks behind her, where twenty tons of magnetite lie innocently, like plain rocks.

"Take me to the Mother." She orders the ship, and feels a strange uplifting as she goes.

*

The Mother of motherships is protected by a powerful force field, a light blue shimmer in the darkness of space. It is deadly, disintegrating invading ships before they have a chance to realise what happened. But it has a serious weakness, which unfortunately for the Greys Odyssey knows about: it lets recognized ships in automatically. Earth jet fighters have something similar, called "identify friend/foe". It prevents pilots from bombarding their comrades with so-called 'friendly fire'. The new silvery prototype has a similar device. The force field opens to let in the ship, and Odyssey's jaw drops. The Mother is revealed in all its glory: it is beyond huge. The motherships are huge: they are the size of small cities, buzzing with thousands of alien lives.

The Mother is the size of the moon. It hovers silently in space, waiting for its cargo of motherships to return to base. Odyssey thoughts turn to the twenty tons of magnetite she is carrying; all of a sudden it seems insignificant. To make it work she will have to enter the Mother, to damage her from the inside.

But the real problem is the motherships. The Mother is surrounded by dozens of them. Every mothership in the fleet, it seems. They are well armed, their menacing forms dwarfing her in her tiny silver space fighter. They have been expecting her, she realizes with a pang of fear, cursing herself for her stupidity. All the pink elephants in the universe were not enough to mask her thoughts.

As they start firing, she closes her eyes and forces the ship to shoot forward, as fast as it can, downwards below their fire, upwards towards a mothership. _Her_ mothership: home. She smashes into it, her silver ship tearing a hole in a white living room wall. For a sliver of a moment all is quiet, and Odyssey watched transfixed as her belongings scatter silently in space, her table and her green striped sofa. It floats slowly, turning on its side, onwards into oblivion. Odyssey follows it with her eyes, too surprized to be sorry.

A loud, hissing bang tears through space, as a shot from one of the ships finally penetrates Odyssey's shield. A large hole opens in the outer wall of the silver ship and the door of the control room seals, locking space and the masses of Magnetite outside. Another shot sets the ship on fire. Odyssey closes her eyes and pictured the faces of her children. Try as she might, she cannot hold back the tears.

And then there is a creak. The mothership, _her_ ship, home, is screaming and crumbling, pulled towards and around the silver ship. Something in the broken metal of the mothership interacted with the magnetite, and with a scream the mothership begins to collapse into it. And as it does, something even more magnificent happens: the closest mothership is pulled, crushing into the first. And then a third ship follows: like pins to a magnet, the ships pull each other, crushing into one another, and with each one the power of the magnet seems to increase.

The magnetic mass of motherships is now almost as large as the Mother, and with amazing silence it is pulled in, a dark moon shooting through space, crushing into the mass of contracting metal.

*

Odyssey is crawling on the floor, or whatever it is that was left of the silver ship. Over her head the air is full of smoke, and the walls are literally closing in, as the mass of giant spaceships crushes into the unstoppable force of the Magnetite. The walls are crumpled, creaking and screaming. Blue bolts of electricity shoot in every direction: they are probably seen for miles. Odyssey crawls until she can crawl no more. She lifts her eyes to the destroyed control panel; one screen is somehow still working. With an effort, the dying ship gives her one last wish.

It shows her Emily hugging Andrew, comforting him as they both cry; Ann, with a look of childish determination on her face, biting her lip; William, in his peaceful farm, watching the strange light show in the sky; Mulder, Dana in his arms, looking at the same light show.

"That's her, up there." He tells Dana, pointing to the sky. "That's Scully."

"I _am_." Odyssey whispers.

Was it worth it? She asks herself. She was trapped up here for nearly half her life. She became a mother up here, and even achieved great (if unrecognized) scientific ventures. She remembers Emily's soft skin, her warm toddler cheeks as she smiled; Andrew running around the ship, pretending to be a perfectly normal boy while learning to fly a new space fighter; Ann, who always kept track of time, making her birthday cakes year after year; and passers-by, humans experimented on, who she sometimes talked to but could never save. And Mulder, who was never her lover, even though she did love him, then. Crying now, Odyssey watches as the screen takes fire, Mulder and Scully's faces liquefy and disappear.

"She saved us all." Mulder says, his voice metallic and distorted.

And then the walls of fire and metal close in on Odyssey, and all is finally quiet.


	11. Scully

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What are you thinking about?" Mulder, who has joined her on the porch, asks.
> 
> "Her." Scully says. "All alone, up there."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, Scully POV. This was written to Amsterdam by Coldplay, from the album A Rush of Blood to the Head.

The new moon is called Penelope. Mulder suggested the name. For the remaining humans on the planet it is more than a strange phenomenon, a thing to be probed and studied; it is the grave of a brave woman, one who sacrificed her life to save everyone else's. They listen to him now, in the aftermath of the invasion: his book is now understood as a prophecy, not the ramblings of a madman. Some abductees know themselves to be replacements, now. A new industry has sprouted, of support groups, clone-therapy and insurance for chip damage. And yet, some of them can't help but kill themselves. She was considering it herself, for a while. But she can't, not without betraying Odyssey.

Samantha was the one who explained what happened: the aliens had no home planet; it was destroyed long ago. They had survived by moving from planet to planet, in their artificial world: the Mother of motherships. It was not only their port; it was the base of their entire species. With it and the motherships destroyed, not much was left until the war was won. The remaining mass of wrecked ships, forming a dark orb in space, became Earth's second moon. It is smaller than the first, and there is a blue halo around it from residual energy. Mulder suggested calling it Penelope, to commemorate Odyssey's journey.

Scully is not sure about the name. She just calls it 'the dark moon', like everybody else. She isn't sure about anything anymore.

*

There was a girl in the house, a young woman. Thirteen years earlier she had died in Scully's arms, but there she was. Scully would see traces of that girl in her; the one who, after she died, was revealed in dreams and visions. Now she knew they were all just the works of her mind, wishful thinking. This all-grown-up version of Emily had a knack for getting into trouble. Scully has a strong feeling that Mulder's genes are at work here, somehow. They didn't talk much, although Emily did smile at her occasionally.

There was a boy. A boy she never knew existed. She was a little overwhelmed by her immediate willingness to love him, though she shouldn't have been; it was exactly the same with Emily, at the time. But he did not want to talk to her, nor look at her. Once, when she had tried to engage him in conversation, he yelled that she should never talk to him, that she doesn't have the right, she is just a copy that took his mother's place, that stole away her life.

"I wish _you_ were dead instead of her!" he had yelled and Scully was dumbfounded, lost. But she would still try to talk to him, sometimes. She was thinking that maybe he was becoming accustomed to her. He didn't try to run away anymore, anyway. She would study him, behind his back, enchanted by his resemblance to Mulder. He grew taller all the time, hinting at the lanky form he will have one day have, and he already had Mulder's walk and way of speech. But his fair skin and freckles were hers. Scully's. Dana's. Odyssey's. Scully did not like that name, either. She usually thought of the other Scully as _her_. Actually she did not like to think about her at all. It made most of her life pointless. All her childhood experiences happened to someone else. She knew now that she wasn't even alive, then. Those were not her memories, and it was too much to grasp.

*

After the invasion failed, mostly due to the eradication of the alien fleet, she made Mulder sit down and tell her everything. The children and Samantha were asleep in the motel, and Scully dragged Mulder out of the room and made him confess. Of course she had already figured it out, at least the gist of it. And of course she did not believe it. She demanded proof. Mulder talked to her about her amazing healing ability; about her empty ovaries; about immortality. But it was a Super Soldier who explained to her about the chip. She made him, of course. One of Odyssey's many gifts to her was the ability to control the Super Soldiers.

She ran into the soldier one night, on their long drive back from Roswell to their home in Virginia. Mulder, Samantha and the kids were in the motel, and she went to fuel the car. She ordered him to explain about his species. He told her that he was a newer model, controlled by the metal vertebrae in their neck. He told her that they cannot be destroyed. The older replacements, he explained, were much more fragile. They could die, though they did not naturally. They were controlled by metallic chips in their necks - a primitive method, he laughed. When the chip was discovered and taken out, a self-destruct mechanism was engaged. Cancer. They all perished within the year, never knowing they were nothing but copies.

She doesn't know to this day how she recognized him as a Super Soldier, but she did. Maybe it was the haunted look on his face; they all had it after the invasion failed. After the Mother was destroyed the Soldiers did not get orders anymore. They would walk around, blank faced and shaken, living gods without a purpose. The bottom side was that they also stopped killing off the hatchlings. Regular soldiers had to come in, instead. After the super soldier explained about replacements and the chip, Scully ordered him to go to the magnetite fields outside Roswell, and went to sleep.

*

After they came home she sat down by the window, and stayed there for three months. The days were already becoming longer, and thousands of flowers bloomed outside the house. Samantha was taking baking classes and the house always smelled of butter and molten sugar. Andrew was talking about going to school in the fall. Emily taught herself to drive and started dating a college student. He thought she was home schooled. Scully did not look at the flowers, did not eat much, and did not order Emily to be home by eleven. She did not talk to anyone, just stared outside.

Mulder, who always seemed to jump at the opportunity to go off on his own, had driven up in search of the bee farms. Since he was as paranoid as ever, he did not call or write at all while he was there. Scully wouldn't have noticed if he did. Samantha tried to make her eat or talk, with limited success.

"The thing that strikes me the most about your reaction," she said, "is that it's not like you at all. You don't just… _give up_ like this. You fight!"

"What is there to fight for?" Scully asked. "The fight has been won."

Samantha sat by her on the window ledge, forcing her to move a little. "I don't know. But sitting here and giving in to despair…that's just not who you are."

"And who is that?" Scully asked in a flat tone.

"Dana Scully!" Samantha called. "You're Dana Scully."

"Ah." Scully smiled bitterly. "Apparently not."

Samantha sighed. "Don't be silly. Of course you are."

"No." Scully said. "I'm not Dana Scully. _She_ was. I just thought that's who I am." She sighed, giving Samantha a sideways glance. "And if I'm not who I am, than who am I?"

"An ungrateful idiot, that's who!" Samantha exclaimed, outraged. "She gave up her name when you appeared! From the second you existed you were the only Dana Scully!"

Scully did not respond, her unfocused eyes wandering towards the window again. Samantha did not try to talk anymore. She would just put her meals on the table and leave the room. Andrew and Emily avoided her as well. After a while she got the feeling that they didn't really notice her anymore; she became an item of furniture.

*

After a few weeks Mulder returned. He had found William and burnt down the fields. It took them a while to return, as they had to go and burn the fields of all the other bee farms. All the little Samanthas perished, apparently. When Mulder came back, he and William were great friends. The boy was even talking, a little. His language skills were improving rapidly, and Mulder had hopes that he'd catch up.

They found Scully in the same position, sitting near the window and wishing she was dead. Her hair was matted and dark with dirt; she did not change her clothes in weeks. Mulder looked for someone to yell at and found only an indifferent Emily, a bitter Andrew and a hurt Samantha. Scully smelled so bad that William did not even want to come near her.

Mulder dragged her into the shower, made her a bath and sat on the edge of the tub, holding her hand. She had a feeling that more than he wanted to support her, he was making sure she didn't drown herself. Then he asked her, very gently, what had happened. And she told him. She could not forgive herself for what she was, born out of the suffering of someone else, a stealer of a life.

"It wasn't your fault, Scully. You never chose any of it. Your existence was forced unto you, just as it is for everyone else." He said.

"It's funny." She said. "I remember the first time we met. I remember so vividly: your handshake, your cocky remarks, the shape of your glasses. All of it."

"Yes, I remember too." He replied, smiling now. "What about it?"

She sighed. "It's just that I was never there. They aren't my memories. All my childhood, my twenties, everything I know…they are all borrowed. I was never there."

"But you remember it." He said. "So in a way, you were."

She didn't reply.

"Look," he said, "The Scully I knew then and the Scully I know now are not that different. You are both incredibly smart, loyal, fierce women, who would do anything to protect those in need. That's who you are. That's who _she_ was. But I only knew her for a couple of years; I've known you for eighteen. And you are the one I love. Scully..."

"You love a lie." She said.

"No." he replied. "I love _you_. And you are every bit as real as she ever was."

When she got out of a shower she said hello to William, who was standing beside his father, looking up with shy eyes. He was small for his age, with Mulder's nose and full lower lip. He had her eyes, big and blue.

"Hello, William." She said shyly.

"Hello…Mother." He replied.

And she couldn't resist anymore, bent down and took him in her arms. He threw his arms around her, burying his face in her neck. Much later, when she was again faced with how special he was, she realized that he must have read her mind that day.

William was now in the house, and she began to teach him to read and write. Andrew softened a little, told her that he was sorry and that nothing was really her fault, and handed her a small airplane he had built from old tin cans and a motor taken from a remote-controlled car. It wasn't a model plane, either - it was real. Andrew showed her how to fly it using the remote control, and once it got so far that it fell on the neighbour's lawn, a mile away. Then William got it to fly without using the remote, and Andrew called him 'the alien baby', earning a well-aimed smack from his older sister.

Emily broke up with her boyfriend and instead of crying got Scully to give her math and physics lessons. When Scully tried to talk to her about sex, she said she was alright and knew all about protection.

"I watched a lot of movies up there, Dae." She said. "It was a lot more interesting than watching the clones."

Scully was trying to hold back her tears, hearing the name Melissa used to call her coming out of her daughter's mouth. Not _her_ daughter, she reprimanded herself. Odyssey's. But it wasn't really important, anymore.

Eventually, she went back to work. She discovered that she missed it, and good surgeons were always in demand. She took Emily to work with her, a few times. Emily was so charmed by Scully's ability with the scalpel that she declared her wish to be a doctor.

"That's a side of you I've never seen, you know." She told Scully. "Mom was a scientist, not a doctor. I really like it that you save people's lives. I want to be like that."

"But you never even went to high school." Andrew pointed out.

"Don't worry, Em." Mulder said. "I know a guy who knows a guy who can fake you some great credentials. We'll teach you some math and history, and if anybody asks just say you were home-schooled."

"Should I put in my cloning experience in the application?" Emily mock-pondered.

"Sure." Andrew said. "Write it next to 'flying stolen space-fighters around the moon'."

"That was only once!" Emily called. "And besides, it was bored. It wanted to go on a flight."

"Kids, no fighting at the dinner table." Mulder called, and Scully could not resist giving him a wide grin.

*

The night after Emily leaves for college Scully goes outside to look at the second moon. It is brighter than usual, the blue glow around it giving it a ghostly feeling. She looks at it for a long time, thinking about Odyssey. She thinks about the moon and the dark moon, and how twin-like they are. Penelope is new, but somehow it already seems like it was always there. It isn't less of a moon than the original one, even though it is made of magnetized metal and not land and rocks.

"What are you thinking about?" Mulder, who has joined her on the porch, asks.

"Her." Scully says. "All alone, up there."

Mulder wraps his arm around her and they are quiet for a long time.

"I never got to thank her." She says.

"For what?" Mulder asks.

"For everything." Scully says. "I took everything from her, and yet she saved my life. She neutralized the chip. I am truly my own master now."

"I never got to thank her for bringing you back." Mulder says, and then chuckles "or for preventing you from ever pointing a gun to my head again."

Scully studies the contour of Penelope, its blue outline. "She saved everyone."

Mulder kisses her temple. "You both did."

Scully says nothing. Mulder puts his arms around her and his chin on the top of her head. She wraps her arms around his and lets herself be cradled for a while. In the sky Penelope turns, surrounding the Earth in peaceful silence. They watch her, each lost it their own thoughts, until she sets in the west and a new day begins.


End file.
